Dawn of the Padawans
by LordQball
Summary: When Ahsoka first set foot on Christophsis, she wasn't alone. Another youngling was with her; a boy, one that Ahsoka barely tolerates, has been taken as a padawan by the legendary Obi-Wan Kenobi. Where Ahsoka is the most gifted youngling since Anakin Skywalker, he is the polar opposite. Weak and shy, he and Ahsoka must learn to get along if they are to survive a bleeding galaxy.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! Welcome to my first ever attempt at fanfiction. I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while, but couldn't work up the courage to actually post it for someone besides myself to read. I intend to follow the show fairly closely, though it will immediately be obvious that there will be some fairly significant changes to the storyline. I haven't decided where I want to take this (Read: how much I'm going to change about the ending of season 5), but I have quite a few ideas varying from "everyone has a happy ending" to "everything still goes horribly wrong but in a different way from canon". **

**Read and review? *hides under a blanket***

**P.S. Let me know if there are any grammar mistakes. I think I caught them all?**

**Edit: Added a chapter name.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: New Arrivals**

"It's beautiful..."

Torian Cadera grimaced at the words as he gazed through the starboard view port of the shuttle. Through it, he could see the edge of the blue, crystalline planet of Christophsis, located in the outer rim of the galaxy.

Normally, the planet was a stunning sight from space due to its massive crystal formations, which could be seen even from 3,000 kilometers above the atmosphere. However, the scourge of war had taken its toll on the world: a large debris field cluttered the space around the planet, a painful reminder of the large fleet battle that had taken place before the Republic launched its ground invasion.

The invasion itself had been long and bloody, creating ugly black scars that marred the planet's surface, with huge plumes of smoke rising into the upper atmosphere from most of the major cities. Fortunately, the fighting was nearly over, for this world at least. The Republic forces had almost complete control of Christophsis, with only a small pocket of Separatist resistance remaining in one of the minor cities of the Southern Hemisphere.

"It was." Torian mumbled back to the orange skinned Togruta sitting in the port-side passenger seat.

"Why are you such a grouch, Tori? We're about to meet our Jedi masters! You should be excited!" Ashoka asked, a bit indignantly.

Torian couldn't help but roll his eyes. They had been having similar conversations ever since the shuttle left Coruscant.

It had been a very long trip.

Torian turned to face Ashoka, careful to keep his face neutral and not stare. Because of how rare it was for a Togruta to be seen outside of their homeworld of Shili, most beings did a double take when they first saw Ashoka. Instead of hair, her head was covered by two hollow, blue-striped horns-called 'montrals'-that acted like a human's ears, although they were far more sensitive and gave her enhanced spatial awareness. Her montrals extended down the back and both sides of her head, morphing into tail-shaped nerve clusters called 'lekku'. Her face was thin and angular, adorned by the white face markings that were unique to every Togruta. She had a small, skinny, but well toned and athletic body, making her extremely fast and agile. In short, she made quite an impression despite her small size.

"I'm not a grouch, and don't call me Tori." The human said for what felt like the thousandth time.

It was Ahsokas turn to roll her eyes. Frankly, she didnt understand why Tori was even on this shuttle. Ashoka had excelled at nearly everything while growing up in the Jedi temple on Coruscant, and Tori had been distinctly unimpressive. He was mediocre with a lightsaber, mediocre with the Force, worse than mediocre at diplomacy due to his utter lack of people skills... he was just mediocre at everything.

Which was why Ashoka had been floored when she learned that Tori had been chosen by none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi. One of the most famous Jedi in the galaxy, master Kenobi was the considered by many to be the embodiment of everything that a Jedi should aspire to be: wise, powerful, fearless, a mighty warrior and brilliant negotiator. A true desciple of the Light. Why Kenobi, who had a seat on the Jedi High Council, would pick someone like Torian to be his apprentice was simply baffling. Torian hadn't earned such an honor, unlike Ashoka. She had been chosen by the equally famous, if highly controversial, Anakin Skywalker, and Ashoka knew that she was worthy of being his apprentice, unlike Tori.

The human couldn't even _pretend _to be impressive. Tori was scrawny and short, even shorter than Ahsoka if you included her Montrals. His hair was short and wildly curly, with a stubborn clump in the middle of his head that simply refused to lay down with the other brown strands (Ahsoka was glad she didn't have hair, it seemed like such a pain to deal with). He wore the simple brown garments of a stereotypical Jedi, complete with the blocky, inelegant lightsaber hilt that hung from his waist. His jaw was angular, his eyes were slightly too close together, his nose was a little to big, and his lips seemed incapable of smiling. The only thing about him that would catch anyone's attention for even a moment was the color of his eyes: they were an unusual shade of violet, a color that was as unique as it was breathtaking. Yet somehow, Tori managed to make even that unimpressive, mostly because he refused to make eye contact with anyone.

_And he is most definitely a grouch._

Ashoka was about to make a scathing reply about how he had been grumpy the whole trip that he didn't even deserve to be on, when a voice called out from the cockpit ahead of her.

"We'll arrive at General Kenobi's command post in 7 minutes, commanders. "

Turning away from Tori, Ashoka looked towards the cockpit. "Thanks Hawk. Any word on how the battles going?" She replied, addressing the clone pilot by his nickname.

Hawk shook his head. "No sir, we're getting a lot of comm interference. The _Resolute _is also having troub-"

Hawk was cut off by an alarm coming from screen above his head, which was showing a cluster of red dots next to a larger, blue dot.

"A seppie fleet just dropped out of hyperspace! They're closing in on the _Resolute_!" Strut, the copilot, exclaimed. He pressed a button on the control panel, switching the screen to the aft camera view.

The screen showed five Munificent-class frigates facing a lone Venator-class star destroyer. Blue and red beams of energy began to fill the space between the opposing ships, as Tori and both pilots grimaced. They knew that while the destroyer was a tough and formidable warship, it couldn't take on five frigates at once, especially since it had been caught completely by surprise. The _Resolute _would have to retreat... leaving the Separatists in control of the space around Christophsis, able to land reinforcements without interference.

"We have to help them!" Ashoka insisted. "Turn the ship around."

Torian and the clones looked at her incredulously. "How are we supposed to help them?" He asked while shaking his head. "We're in a small, slow, unarmed shuttle. We'd be worse than useless. We need to get down to the surface and tell Master Kenobi what's happened."

Ahsoka glared at Torian for a few seconds, causing him to flinch and look away, but every argument she could think of sounded weak even to her, so she relented.

"Fine." She sighed. "Take us down, Hawk."

Hawk nodded, and increased the shuttle's speed as it entered the planet's atmosphere. It was a bit risky going this fast in an unarmored shuttle, but the sooner they were on the ground, the better.

Ahsokas lekku twitched with frustration as she watched the _Resolute_ get pummeled by the Separatist fleet. At least the battle on Christophsis itself was going well...

* * *

"They're back!"

Anakin's irritated voice filled Obi-Wans ears as he ran up to his friend and former apprentice. Looking down one of the long bridges that connected the buildings of this city, Obi-Wan could see and hear the approaching droid army. The sound of the perfectly cadenced marching of battle droids mixed with the deep hum of AAT's had become all to familiar to him over the last few months, and the background noise to many bad dreams.

"I told you this victory was too easy. We never should have sent the ship back for supplies!" Obi-wan replied.

"It wasnt _my_ idea to send the ship _back." _Anakin said, looking pointedly at Obi-Wan.

Deciding not to respond to Anakins jab, he turned the clone commander by his side. "Cody, are the cannons ready?"

The clone commander nodded, "Yes sir. They're still a little hot from the last assault, but the gunners said they'll be fine. I've already got the troops forming a battle line 500 meters in front of the cannons."

"Good work Cody." Looking back down the bridge, Obi-Wan frowned at what he saw.

"Uh oh. Looks like they've got more of those three-legged walkers Obi-Wan. If they get close enough to the cannons..." Anakin said apprehensively.

"Indeed. The cannons weren't very effective against them before..." Obi-Wan stroked his beard in thought, then looked at his friend expectantly. "Isn't this the part where you come up with some ridiculous plan that should never work, yet somehow does?"

"They're not ridiculous if they work. But yes, I think I do have an idea..." Anakins gaze shifted towards one of the buildings that stood next to the bridge, just beyond where the troopers were forming a defensive line. He suddenly turned to look at Captain Rex, who was jogging towards them. "Hey Rex, do we have any jet-packs?"

-O-

Obi-Wan grunted as his blue lightsaber cut down yet another battle droid that had made it over the wall. The troopers had hastily built the wall using whatever debris they could find, and were using it as cover while they poured blasted fire into the mass of droids marching towards them. While the wall was effective, it was far from perfect. The battle droids were terrible shots, but they compensated for that with sheer numbers, creating a wall of blaster fire that was nearly impossible to avoid. More and more troopers were felled by the onslaught, and more droids were making it over the wall as the clone casualties mounted.

Obi-Wan deflected some blaster shots from a super battle droid, larger and deadlier than the regular droids, before slicing it in half with his saber. Grabbing the two halves with the Force, he flung them into two other SBD's as they approached, sending them to the ground in a shower of sparks.

Trying to ignore the pained cries of troopers as they were wounded and killed, Obi-Wan was decapitating a battle droid when, with a thunderous roar, a large blue-white orb of energy flew over his head and smashed into the center of the mass of droids, obliterating dozens of them and damaging dozens more. A few seconds later, three more of the energy orbs roared overhead, landing amongst the column of tanks that were supporting the droid infantry. Large explosions, accompanied by pieces of tank that were tossed into the air, shook the ground beneath Obi-Wan's feet.

The artillery barrage staggered the droid advance, giving the clones a few seconds to catch their breath. The reprieve was short lived however, as a red laser cannon shot suddenly impacted the wall, killing and maiming an entire squad of troopers.

Looking over the heads of the reforming mass of battle droids, Obi-Wan's expression turned grim. The towering, three legged Octuptarra tri-droids, which had been marching along behind the AAT column, were finally in range.

The 50 meter tall Octuptarras had three durasteel legs that came together at the bottom of a spherical "head", which mounted three heavy laser cannons spaced around the head. With each shot, the head would rotate, allowing the most recently fired cannon to cool and recharge while bringing to bear a fresh and fully charged cannon. They began pouring fire into the increasingly desperate clone troopers, who had no heavy weapons remaining that could damage the huge war machines.

Four more energy balls thundered overhead as the assault regained momentum, sending battle droids and tanks flying. The artillery crews knew from the first assault that the AV-7 heavy cannons simply weren't accurate enough to reliably hit the Octuptarra's vulnerable legs, and couldn't do much damage to the heavily armored head.

The situation somehow got worse, as the clone troopers last remaining AT-TE heavy walker took a direct hit to the cockpit from an Octuptarra. The walker sagged and finally collapsed, crushing a few unfortunate troopers who were using it as cover.

As Obi-Wan continued to deflect blaster bolts and slice up droids as best he could, Cody made his way over to the General, careful to keep his head below the wall.

"General Skywalker should have attacked by now!" Kenobi noticed there was an uncharacteristic nervousness to Cody's voice.

"Don't worry, he'll come through." Obi-Wan tried to sound encouraging, but he too was wondering what was taking Anakin so long.

As if the man in question could hear Obi-Wan's thoughts, Anakin leaped from a building next to the bridge, landing atop one of the Octuptarras and igniting his lightsaber. He was followed by Rex and two squads of troopers, all wearing jet-packs, who landed on the ground right in the middle of the group of walkers.

Unable to depress their cannons enough to return fire, and with no infantry support, the Octuptarras were helpless against the barrage of blue blaster bolts and rockets that hit their more thinly armored underbellies. Anakin stabbed the head of the walker he was on, then jumped off and sliced off one of its legs for good measure. The walker toppled to one side, knocking over another Octuptarra in the process.

Two more walkers fell to the clone assault, and the remaining walker lost two of its legs to Anakins saber. However, the ambushers had little time to appreciate their victory, because by now the rearmost AAT's of the tank column had figured out what was happening. Swiveling their turrets around, they opened fire on the clone troopers.

Taking this as their cue to leave, Anakin grabbed on to Rex as he and the other troopers jet-packed back into the building they came from.

On the other end of the column, the troopers behind the wall cheered as the walkers fell. The momentum swung in favor of the Republic as the droid forces did an about face and began to retreat back down the bridge. General Kenobi led the clones in a brief pursuit of the retreating Separatist army, but they did not dare go beyond the range of their heavy cannons.

Cody and Obi-Wan were at the command post, trying to establish contact with Admiral Yularen, when the triumphant ambushers returned. Anakin had some swagger to his steps, and Rex was wearing a small smirk.

"A well executed ambush, if I do say so myself." Anakin said smugly.

"Yes, but your timing could use a little work..." Obi-Wan deadpanned, turning away from the communications console that he'd been fighting with.

"Hey, your 212th boys couldn't take down those walkers _half _as fast as mine did."

"Like hell they couldn't! Next time, the 212th will show you 501st womprats how it's done." Cody chimed in. The friendly rivalry between two of the Republic's most distinguished clone trooper legions had become legendary, each finding new ways to one-up the other. It was good for morale, and provided a distraction from the horrors of war.

Obi-Wan let the healthy banter continue on for a little while, but then he sobered and spoke in a quiet voice. "Unfortunately, if we don't get reinforced soon, there may not _be _a 212th or 501st for much longer. We haven't been able to contact the admiral."

Anakin frowned at the console next to Obi-Wan. "Still can't get a message through? I thought the techs fixed it?"

"It's fixed, sir, but now we're fighting interference. The clankers have a broad-spectrum jammer somewhere, so we'll have to-"

Cody was cut off by the low roar of sublight engines, as a Republic shuttle flew over head. It maneuvered through the maze of skyscrapers, wings folding up as it prepared to land.

"The ship's back!" Anakin exclaimed, grinning with relief. "Guess we don't have to worry about calling for reinforcements anymore."

"Indeed." Obi-Wan stroked his beard, wondering if this shuttle was carrying who he hoped it was. "Rex, take a headcount. See how many men are still in fighting condition. We'll go greet our new arrivals."

"Yes, sir."

Cody and the Jedi Generals started walking towards the shuttle, which had landed in the small plaza just in front of the four heavy cannons. There was a sharp hiss of air as the shuttle depressurized, followed by the whine of a hydraulic motor as the boarding ramp began to open.

"I've never been so glad to see a Republic shuttle. I'm ready to get off this rock."

"Indeed. It would seem our problems are solved." Kenobi replied.

"Fresh troops, new supplies..."

"And perhaps they brought my new padawan with them."

Anakin raised an eyebrow at his friend, who had mentioned before they arrived on Christophsis that he was taking on a new padawan. Even now, after knowing the man for so long, there were times where he honestly thought Obi-Wan was a bit crazy. "You really think it's a good idea to bring a padawan learner into a war zone?"

"Master Yoda approved it." Obi-Wan then gave Anakin a strange look, and the younger man had a feeling he knew what was coming. "You should put in a request for one, you'd be a good teacher."

Anakin mentally facepalmed as his friend once again brought up _that _topic. Obi-Wan had been pestering him about it for a while now, and Anakin was beginning to think he would have to threaten to shave the man's beard to convince him to drop the issue. "For the last time, I don't want a padawan! They would just slow me down."

"Anakin, it's every Jedi's responsibility to help train the next generation. If you ever want to be elevated to Jedi Master, and someday be on the council..." Anakin quickly tuned out what was rapidly becoming another lecture, and instead began planning how he would de-beard his former master.

Obi-Wan was in full lecture mode by the time they reached the bottom of the ramp. Anakin was about to tell Obi-Wan that had no interest in being on the council with a bunch of crusty old Jedi who meditated about _everything_, when his attention was drawn to the small, orange skinned Togruta girl descending the ramp.

Obi-Wan had stopped as well, slightly behind Anakin so he could hide how he was struggling to keep a straight face. He knew what was about to happen, and was already fighting to not let his amusement show either on his face or in the Force. Shifting his attention to the Togruta, Obi-Wan was careful to act surprised while not being too obvious about it. "A youngling?"

The girl walked down the ramp until she was standing in front of the two Jedi. She was petite, looking no more than 14 years old and barely tall enough to reach their shoulders with an outstretched arm, but clearly extremely athletic. She exuded confidence bordering on arrogance, her back ramrod straight and face full of calm determination. Her expression was relaxed, though the slight upturn of her lips and a faint glint in her eyes betrayed her excitement and energetic nature. A silver lightsaber hilt hung from her belt, and like all lightsabers the weapon's design was unique and reflected the qualities and attributes of its master.

Anakin wasn't impressed. The girl was far too young to be a padawan, and far too young to be on a battlefield. Ignoring the little voice in his head reminding him he was only 11 when he became Obi-Wan's padawan and blew up a battleship, Anakin scowled and said, somewhat rudely, "And who are you supposed to be?"

If she noticed Anakin's unfriendly attitude, the girl didn't show it. "I'm Ahsoka Tano, the new padawan learner. Master Yoda sent me to tell you both that you must return to the temple immediately, there's an emergency."

Anakin scoffed and shook his head. "Uh, I don't know if you've noticed, but we're in a bit of an emergency right _here_. We aren't going anywhere until we get some reinforcements and finish off these droids."

"We've been calling for help, but our communications have been unreliable at best." Obi-Wan chimed in, stroking his beard to hide smile on his lips. He seemed to be the only one who had noticed that a second youngling was descending the ramp.

"Master Yoda couldn't get a transmission through, so he had me deliver the message."

"Oh great. They don't even know we're in trouble!" Anakin growled in frustration. He turned back to Ahsoka to complain a little more, even though it wasn't her fault, when he noticed that a brown haired human had suddenly appeared next to Ahsoka. He looked to be about the same age as her, maybe a little older, and was almost as scrawny. The similarities ended there, however. "Who are you?" He then looked at Obi-Wan, confused and more than a little exasperated. "Don't tell me you're getting _two_ padawans?"

Ahsoka and the newcomer glanced at each other, confusion written on their faces as well.

"Um... I'm Torian Cadera. I've been assigned to Master Kenobi." The newcomer's voice was soft and timid. He scrunched up his shoulders and ducked his head slightly, as if he were trying to make himself as small as possible. Even his Force signature seemed to shrink away from the other Jedi.

"And I've been assigned to Master Skywalker." Ahsoka added, with much more enthusiasm and confidence.

The sudden silence was deafening. Anakin wore an expression of stunned disbelief, Obi-Wan was sporting a poodoo-eating grin, and the poor padawans were completely confused by the very different reactions of the two Jedi.

After a few false-starts, Anakin finally remembered how to make words and his expression shifted to something like panic. "Whoa whoa whoa, there must be some mistake. I didn't request a padawan. _He _did." Anakin insisted, pointing emphatically at Obi-Wan.

Shaking her head, Ahsoka replied, "Master Yoda was very specific. Tori is assigned to Master Kenobi, and I'm assigned to Master Skywalker." Torian huffed and glared at Ahsoka, but she ignored him.

Anakin couldn't believe what he was hearing. The last thing he wanted right now was to be burdened with a padawan. "But that doesn't make any se-"

"We'll have to sort this out later." Obi-Wan interjected, barely managing to hide his amusement before Anakin saw it. "We need to prepare for the next assault, and we need to find a way to make contact with Coruscant. We'll need reinforcements to finish off the Separatists."

"You may be able to relay a transmission through the _Resolute_, but they've probably left by now. They were attacked by a Separatist fleet." Torian mumbled. Obi-Wan grimaced when he noticed that the 14 year old was rubbing his temple and seemed to be having trouble concentrating, as though he had a bad headache. Kenobi knew why Torian looked that way-he had been briefed on it by Master Yoda.

"It's worth a shot." Kenobi said, then addressed Anakin. "Why don't you and Ahsoka go check on the defenses? You can introduce her to Rex while you're at it. Torian and I will go to the command post and try to contact the council."

Anakin seemed ready to argue, but the look on Obi-Wan's face made him reconsider. "Fine. C'mon." He gestured at Ahsoka to follow him, and they started walking towards the defensive perimeter. They barely made it halfway before they started arguing.

"They make... quite a pair, sir." Cody commented, having silently watched the whole exchange from behind Obi-Wan.

"Indeed..." Obi-Wan replied with a raised eyebrow, more to himself than Cody or Torian. "But if Master Yoda is right, she is exactly what Anakin needs."

"What do you mean?" Torian asked.

Cody's helmet turned slightly towards Obi-Wan, as if he too wanted to know the answer.

Obi-Wan just shook his head. "Another time. Cody, this is my new padawan, Torian Cadera. Torian, this is Commander Cody."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir." Cody said. He wasn't really sure if he should salute or give the kid a handshake, so he just nodded.

"Likewise." It felt weird to be called 'sir', but Torian decided he could get used to it.

Satisfied that introductions had been made, Obi-Wan decided he wanted a moment alone with his padawan. "Cody, go back to the command post and try to contact Coruscant through the _Resolute_, and then gather the company and platoon leaders. I want to introduce them to Torian. We'll be along shortly."

"Yes sir!" Cody saluted smartly, then turned around and started jogging towards the command post.

Torian sighed in relief as Cody left, and Obi-Wan could see that the boy was feeling better now that it was just them two, but he still looked a bit naseous. "Remember your calming exercises. Let go of their emotions."

"I'm trying, I don't-" Torians head snapped up, a look of shock on his face. "You... you know?"

Obi-Wan nodded. "Yes, all of the council members know that you're an especially sensitive empath, though only Master Yoda and myself know all the details."

Torian's eyes were wide as he gaped at Kenobi. "B-but why would you choose me? You know that I'm cursed, that I can't be around more than a few people at a time or I go nuts! I'm not fit to leave the temple, let alone be a Jedi!" He started breathing rapidly, and he looked ready to sprint back to the shuttle and fly it back to Coruscant himself if he had to.

Obi-Wan put his hand on Torians shoulder and reached out with the Force, trying to calm his new padawan's fear. He was fairly certain he would be doing this often, at least until he could build up the boy's confidence, and he hoped things would only get better as their master-apprentice bond developed. "You are _gifted_, not cursed. I know this will be difficult, but Master Yoda and I believe that you can learn to control and accept your gift. You just need guidance, and experience interacting with other beings. You have far too much potential to be allowed to hide in the temple." He finished by squeezing Torians shoulder, and then started guiding his padawan towards the command post that had been set up behind the cannons.

"I... I don't think you realize what you're getting into, Master." Torian said, his voice shaky and nervous. He had been fighting against the difficulties of his 'gift' ever since it began to manifest when he was 8, and had all but lost hope that he would ever be able to control it. Six years of private training with Master Yoda himself had not made the dizzying assault of emotions and feelings that weren't his own any more bearable, and Torian couldn't understand how being forcibly surrounded by thousands of beings was supposed to help.

Every Jedi could sense the emotions of other beings to some degree, though some could do it more easily and accurately than others. It was easier to do with beings that the Jedi were in frequent contact with, which was why a Jedi and their padawan could usually read each other like an open book, in some cases even being able to read each other's thoughts.

The thing that made Torian stand out was the fact that, for him, sensing emotions was a passive act. While normal Jedi had to actively reach out with the Force to do so, Torian could feel the emotions of every being that was nearby whether he wanted to or not. The constant barrage of foreign emotion was exhausting, giving him a constant headache from trying to discern between his own feelings and those of the beings around him. A headache that only grew worse the more people he was around, sometimes getting to the point where his mental defenses would completely collapse and his own thoughts and emotions would take a backseat to whatever everyone else around him was feeling. There were many occasions in the Jedi temple where Tori would walk past a group of Jedi and suddenly feel happy, or angry, or anything in between without having a clue as to why he felt that way.

Obi-Wan undoubtedly knew all of this if he had spoken to master Yoda, but he apparently didn't pay enough attention to whatever Yoda had told him. "I have faith in you Torian, but _you_ must also have faith in yourself."

Torian could only gulp and nod as they approached the command post, where Cody was trying to contact Coruscant. This definitely was not what he had expected his future to be like, and he still wasn't convinced that this would end well.

_I hope you're right, Master._

* * *

General Loathsom had a problem.

He had promised Count Dooku, leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, that he would destroy the Republic forces on Christophsis in 4 weeks. That had been 6 weeks ago, and he was now facing the possibility of his own armies' destruction. His forces had been reduced to a few thousand battle droids and about six dozen tanks. He still outnumbered the clones over 10 to 1, but their heavy artillery more than made up for the disparity in numbers. Due to the design of the city and his total lack of transport craft, he was forced to march his droids straight down the narrow bridge, limiting the advantage of their overwhelming numbers and making them easy targets for the cannons.

He had tried two assaults, and both had ended in failure. He had lost all of his Octuptarra heavy walkers, and the Republic warship that entered the system a few hours ago had escaped. It would undoubtedly return soon, bringing reinforcements with it. Loathsom knew he was in deep trouble and unfortunately, Count Dooku knew it as well.

"I do not accept failure, General." Dooku's voice was icy, and his glare could have struck fear in a rancor. Loathsom tried to maintain his composure, but he had heard the stories about other generals who had lost favor with the Sith Lord. They weren't pleasant, and he started to sweat just thinking about them.

Loathsom took a shaky breath, and replied, "I will be victorious, Count Dooku, I assure you. Once we activate the shield, their cannons will be useless, and we shall crush the clones and their Jedi leaders!" Loathsom has been furious when his only non-droid aide had discovered a capital-ship grade deflector shield generator sitting in their supply dump. Apparently, none of the droids had thought it necessary to inform the General that the generator was even there. He promptly had the droid supply officer shot.

"Your victory on Christophsis is essential to my plans... do _not_ fail me, General." Dooku snarled, before his miniature holographic image disappeared from the communications booth.

Loathsom shuddered, then whirled around to face his aide, Worrisom.

"Is the shield ready?"

"Yes sir, and the droids are in formation."

Loathsom nodded, disguising his fear as optimism. "Then activate the shield. Today, Christophsis falls." _I hope..._

-O-

Dooku sighed as he ended the transmission. So far, the Sith Lord's machinations had proceeded smoothly. Ventress had completed her little... 'errand' on Tatooine, and was currently setting a trap for the Jedi on the planet Teth. The Jedi council would almost certainly send Skywalker and Kenobi, as they were the only Jedi within 300 light years of Teth. All he needed now was for Loathsom to delay the two Jedi for as long as possible. Dooku fully intended for Loathsom to be defeated, even going so far as to quietly divert forces that could have been sent to Christophsis to other battle fronts but... the General didn't need to know that. He had been looking for a way to get rid of the incompetent fool for some time anyway.

The involvement of the Jedi would only make the outcome even more satisfying. Not only would Dooku gain control of most of the galaxy's outer rim and get rid of Loathsom, he would also disgrace-or better yet, _kill-_the Jedi order's two poster-boys, further deepening the general public's growing distrust of the Jedi.

Pressing a few keys on his desk, Dooku opened a transmission to his apprentice. A few moments later, her hologram appeared a over his desk.

Bowing her head and kneeling, showing the Sith Lord the respect he deserved, Ventress's smooth and seductive voice filled the room.

"Yes, my master?"

"Are your preparations complete?"

"Yes, Master. I have found a monastery that I believe will be a perfect location to spring our trap. I have just finished clearing out the monks that lived here, and locked Jabba's son in a room deep inside the monastery."

Pleased, Dooku nodded and said, "You have done well, Ventress. Now, you must prepare yourself. The Jedi will be sending Kenobi and Skywalker to rescue the Hutt, and you must be ready for them. Delay them as long as possible, while I handle Jabba. But remember, do not engage them personally until you have the evidence we need."

Ventress's hands and jaw clenched when Skywalkers name was said, and Dooku smirked as he felt her anger burning through the Force. Skywalker had nearly killed her before, and she wanted revenge.

"Yes Master." She said through clenched teeth.

"Do not worry child, you will have your chance at revenge. Remember what I have taught you; draw strength from your anger and hate, and you will succeed." Dooku stood up from his desk and straightened his clothes. "I must depart. Once you have made the holorecording, send it to me immediately."

"Yes, Master." The woman bowed her head further, before her hologram disappeared from Dooku's desk.

Dooku walked around his desk and headed toward the door. As he left his private office, Dooku couldn't hold back the grimace that formed on his face as he considered how he would convince Jabba that the Jedi had kidnapped his son. Of all the species in the galaxy who could conceivably build a criminal organization that controlled a vast portion of the outer rim... why did it have to be the smelly, overgrown slugs?

* * *

Torian wasn't sure how to feel about his current situation. He was on an isolated planet in the midst of a galaxy-spanning war, tens of thousands of light years away from the safety of the Jedi Temple where he had been raised, and he was completely surrounded by people, something that he had hated since he was an infant.

At first, Torian had thought it wouldn't be so bad being surrounded by clones. He figured that, since they were identical, the emotions being broadcast through the Force by the clones would feel identical as well, and would therefore be less overwhelming for Torian. He only had to be on the planet for a few minutes to learn that he was only partially correct: the clones' base emotions were indeed similar, but their minds and more complex emotions were surprisingly unique. Torian was confused, however, when he realized that their emotions weren't assaulting his mind, at least not as much as he was used to. When he opened himself up to the Force further, extending his awareness, he discovered something else that baffled him: For some reason, he felt a sort of... _connection _to the clones, as if he already knew them somehow. It was strangely comforting.

_Weird... I'll have to research how the clones were created, maybe that will give me some answers._

"Something on your mind, Torian?" Obi-Wan asked, breaking Torian's focus as they neared the command post.

Deciding not to tell his master what he had discovered, not yet at least, Torian looked up and met Obi-Wans curious gaze. "Umm... no, nothing import-" Torian stopped when a thought suddenly popped into his head, and his eyes grew wide. "Master... does Master Skywalker know...?"

"No, he doesn't, and neither does Ahsoka. I think it would be wise to tell them, since we will be seeing them quite often, but I leave that decision to you." Obi-Wan answered. He could sense that something else was bothering his padawan, though he didn't know what.

Torian was filled with dread at the prospect of spending more time with Ahsoka. The one thing she had never been good at was controlling her emotions, much like her master. She wore her heart on her sleeve, which had made the trip to Christophsis almost unbearable for Torian. It didn't help that she had mostly been feeling contempt towards him, believing she was better than him in every way. She was right, but... she didn't have to rub it in his face, even if it was subconsciously.

When he was around just one or two other beings, Torian could usually cope just fine by using his meditation excercises. However, nothing he tried had been able to even marginally protect him from Ahsoka's emotions, and he couldn't figure out why. He filed that thought away as something else to look into later.

"General Kenobi, we've made contact with the Admiral!"

Torian was again snapped out of his musings by a voice, though this one belonged to a clone. He looked up and realized that they were standing in front of a communications console at the command post. The clone who spoke had red markings on his armor, indicating he was a lieutenant.

A badly distorted hologram of Admiral Yularen appeared over the console. Explosions and yelling could be heard in the background, as the _Resolute_ tried to fight its way through the Seperatist fleet.

Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak, but Yularen beat him to it.

"Gen...al Keno... we mus... reat, we will... with reinforce...as soon as...can". The transmission ended abruptly. Soap fiddled with the console, trying to re-establish the connection, but to no avail.

"What happened?" Obi-Wan demanded, fearing that the ship had been destroyed.

Another clone at a different console spoke up, saying, "Sensors indicate they jumped to hyperspace, sir. Probably headed towards Coruscant."

Obi-Wan's hand went to his chin as he stared at nothing, deep in thought. Clamping down on his worry for Torian's sake, Obi-Wan sighed and said, "Fortunately they'll be back with reinforcements. We just need to survive until they get here."

"They'll have to get through the blockade first..." Torian added quietly, shuffling his feet and trying to be invisible.

"Hmm yes... that will slow them down..." Obi-Wan murmured. He glanced at Cody, who was standing nearby, nodded, and started walking away from the CP. Torian and Cody both followed until he stopped at a secluded spot with no other clones nearby, and asked in a low voice, "How are we on supplies, Cody?"

Cody removed his helmet, revealing his grim face. "Not good, sir. We have about two days worth of rations, and maybe half a days worth of ammunition if the next assault is anything like the last."

Kenobi winced in trepidation as he asked, "And... the cannons?"

Cody took a deep breath and replied, "They're in bad shape sir. The crews don't think they can handle another assault of that scale."

"What about the men?"

"They know we're in a bad spot, but they'll fight to the last man if they have to. Clones _never _give up." Cody's voice was proud and stubborn as he spoke.

"What's wrong with the cannons?" Torian asked. He had been quietly listening to the two men converse while trying to not let their emotions affect him too much.

Both Kenobi and Cody looked at him in surprise, as if they'd forgotten he was there. Obi-Wan felt guilty when the boy seemed to shrink from the intensity of their gazes, both out of shyness and the sudden flare of their emotions, and chided himself for for letting his own worry and anxiety leak out.

"Their capacitors are badly worn from the heavy fighting, and need to be replaced." Obi-Wan said, forcing himself to banish any lingering worry. It seemed to do the trick, making Torian's face and Force signature relax in relief.

"That's putting it mildly sir. The crews overcharged them during the last assault. That probably saved our hides, but now they're worried that the capacitors could fail and-"

"Explode... taking the other cannons with it..." Torian interrupted, though his violet eyes now seemed unfocused and lost in thought.

Cody and Obi-Wan glanced at each other, both wearing confused expressions. Looking back at his Padawan, the General asked, "What's on your mind, Torian?"

For a few moments Torian didn't respond, as if he hadn't even heard the question. Finally he said, "How hard is it to replace the capacitors?"

It was then that Obi-Wan and Cody realized that the Padawan was staring intently at something behind them. Turning around, they saw the wreck of an AT-TE, a few hundred meters away. The tank had lost two of its starboard legs, but the hull was still mostly intact.

Cody was racking his brain, trying to figure out what the kid was suggesting. He understood that Torian was saying they should just replace the capacitors, but where would they find ones that would work in the cannons?

_The cannons..._

His eyes focused on the tank's top-mounted main gun, a powerful mass driver that used... capacitors...

It finally clicked, and Cody wanted to kick himself for not realizing something so obvious. "The gun!"

Obi-Wan was looking at the gun now as well, though he still hadn't figured out what his padawan was suggesting. "The gun? What about it?"

Cody whipped his head around, and Obi-Wan was shocked when he saw that the normally stoic and grim commander was smiling, almost gleefully.

"The gun, sir! It uses capacitors, and I'll bet that they're not much different from what the cannons use!"

Obi-Wan's eyes widened as the lightbulb finally came on.

"Cody-"

"Already on it sir!" Cody interrupted, before sprinting towards where the crews for the AV-7's were resting.

Obi-Wan turned towards Torian, an approving smile on his face. "Good thinking Torian. You may have just saved us all."

Torian's face reddened with embarrassment as he stared at his boots. "Don't thank me yet, we have no idea if it will actually work." He muttered.

"Regardless, it's a good idea that's worth attempting." Obi-Wan's stroked his beard as a question came to mind. "Where did you learn about capacitors?"

Torian shrugged and answered, "I read a lot."

"Always a good trait. Now, let's go see how Anakin and Ahsoka are faring."

Torian grimaced and muttered, "You mean see if they've killed each other yet?"

"Something like that, yes." Obi-Wan said, chuckling.

The padawan tensed and his eyes widened momentarily-he hadn't meant for his master to hear that- but he relaxed once he sensed that Obi-Wan was amused rather than dissaproving.

-O-

They found Anakin and Ahsoka near the front line, talking with Rex. As he and his master approached, Torian noticed that all three were projecting very different emotions. Ahsoka was smug, Anakin was irritated, and Rex was trying-but failing-to hold back laughter.

Obi-Wan could only raise an eyebrow at the strange scene before him. It certainly defied his expectations.

"Do I dare ask?"

"She is the most stubborn, impulsive, disrespectful... gaaah!" Anakin threw his hands into the air and glared at Ahsoka, who was looking quite proud of herself.

"So in other words, she's just like you?" Obi-Wan said, a smirk on his face.

Anakin now fixed his glare on his former master. "Who's side are you on?"

"The Republic's." Obi-Wan replied cheekily. "Now, how does the line look?"

"It looks-"

"Not great." Ahsoka said, interrupting Anakin. "There's a lot of gaps, and we don't have enough troops to man it effectively."

Anakin looked ready to explode. "Would you let me finish?!"

"Hey, _your _the one who said I need to get used to leading troops. Doesn't that include giving boring reports?" She replied haughtily, enjoying this far too much.

"I also said you have no experience, so you're not ready to lead." Anakin growled. "And besides, you won't even be out here much longer. You weren't supposed to be assigned to me!"

Obi-Wan was about to scold Anakin for his harsh words, but was distracted when he saw that Torian looked ready to keel over.

Outwardly, Ahsoka seemed unaffected, though Torian was keenly-and unwillingly-aware that what Anakin said had actually hurt her.

"No," she said, acting normal. "Master Yoda was very specific. I'm assigned to Anakin Skywalker, and he is to supervise my Jedi training. Face it, Skyguy, you're stuck with me."

Rex snorted, unable to contain his amusement any longer. Torian would have laughed too if his head didn't feel like it was being used as a punching bag by a Trandoshan. Even Obi-Wan cracked a smile, though now Anakin was truly seeing red.

"What did you just call me?"

"We can sort this out later." Obi-Wan interrupted firmly, ending the argument before Torian suffered an aneurysm. The boy's eyes had glazed over, and he was dangerously unsteady on his feet. Obi-Wan reached out with the Force, trying to calm his apprentice before he was completely overwhelmed. "Right now we need to focus on what to do about those droids."

Obi-Wan gave Anakin a look, one that he had seen countless times during his days as the older man's padawan. Knowing that he would face a long and incredibly boring lecture if he didn't reign in his emotions, Anakin begrudgingly decided to drop the subject. For now.

"Fine." Anakin turned towards Rex, and his eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw that the captain was still snickering at Ahsoka's new nickname for him. "Tell Obi-Wan what you told me, Rex."

Quickly sobering, Rex face turned grim as he spoke. "We took heavy casualties during the last attack. 57 killed, 83 wounded. About half the wounded can fight, but we have barely enough men to hold the line. I've got some of the troops establishing a fallback position 300 meters in front of the cannons, but that's just barely outside of their minimum range. At that range they'll be just as likely to hit us as they are the droids. And that's assuming the cannons haven't blown themselves up by then."

Obi-Wan was surprised by Rex's unusually pessimistic attitude. The clones rarely viewed defeat as a possibility-a result of their genetic engineering-so when even they weren't optimistic about the outcome of a battle, it meant that the situation was very, very bad.

"We were able to make contact with Admiral Yularen. The Separatist fleet forced him to retreat, but he's returning with reinforcements, so we just have to hold out until he arrives." Obi-Wan said, trying to bring some positivity back into the conversation. "And as for the cannons..." Obi-Wan keyed his wrist comm and spoke into it. "Commander, any news?"

Cody's excited voice erupted from the tiny speaker. "Yes sir, and it's good. The crews think the Commander's idea will work. They've replaced the capacitors in one gun, and are working on the second. They'll have to scavenge another tank to fix the other two, but they should be good to go within an hour."

"Good work Cody." Obi-Wan said, and keyed off his wrist comm. "Sounds like the cannons are no longer an issue, thanks to Torian. He suggested we use capacitors from our destroyed tanks to replace the ones in the cannons." Torian seemed to be doing better now that the argument was over, though he still looked somewhat unsteady and didn't even acknowledge his master's praise.

"Yeah, that was a good idea." Anakin nodded, though he was mentally kicking himself for not thinking of that earlier. "Where did you learn about power delivery systems, Tori?"

Torian felt a little better now that Ahsoka and Anakin had calmed down, but he still had a pounding headache. It took a few moments for him to realize that Skywalker was actually talking to him. "Oh, um... I read a lot." He managed to squeak out.

Ahsoka furrowed her eye markings. She had noticed earlier that Torian seemed uncomfortable, but she got distracted by Anakin. "Are you okay Tori? You don't look well."

"I'm...um...fine", Tori stammered, a bit surprised when her emotions told him that she was genuinely concerned.

"You don't look fine..."

"Yeah, you look like you were forced to listen to a Wookiee sing." Anakin chimed in.

_That's... actually pretty accurate _Tori thought, before he said aloud "I'm fine, I swear." He straightened up and put on his most confident smile, trying to look as normal as possible. He remembered a little too late that confident smiles _weren't _normal for him.

Ahsoka both looked and felt thoroughly unimpressed. "Right."

Obi-Wan had been quietly observing the conversation, curious as to how Torian would respond. He wanted his padawan to tell Anakin and Ahsoka the truth. It would take some of the stress off of the boy's mind, and it would indirectly cause the other two to make an effort to better control their emotions, something that they both struggled with.

Torian wasn't going to tell them, clearly. But Obi-Wan had expected this, and he knew it would probably be a while before he could convince Tori that telling them was a good idea.

Obi-Wan was about to attempt to change the subject, for his padawan's sake, when Rex suddenly spoke up with a grim voice.

"Sir, we have a big problem."

"What is it Rex?" Anakin asked, already dreading the answer.

Rex pointed towards the far end of the bridge, where the droid army was positioned. A pinkish-red dome of energy had appeared there, encompassing the droids and several square blocks of buildings. As the group watched, the dome began to slowly expand. Whenever it contacted a building, a rippling disturbance-like dropping a pebble into water- would appear, before the building was completely enveloped by the dome.

"They've got an energy shield, probably capital-ship grade, and it's going to make things damn near impossible." Rex shook his head and looked at Ahsoka wearily. "If you wanted experience little one... it looks like you're about to get plenty."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Trial by Fire.**

_Whump...Whomp-whump!_

Torian flinched at the harsh roar of the three functioning heavy cannons. Even covering his ears didn't make the ear-splitting noise bearable, and the concussion waves from the towering war machines' muzzles were giving him yet another headache.

The three cannons were desperately hammering away at the droid's energy shield, trying to break through. The fourth cannon sat silent, it's gunnery crew scrambling to replace the last few capacitors so that it could add its firepower to the barrage.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't make any difference, and everyone knew it. The shield seemed completely unaffected by the sustained barrage, as it continued its inexorable advance down the bridge. A shield like this was designed to withstand fire from dozens of warship-grade turbolasers at once; a few AV-7's, although powerful, didn't even come close to that level of firepower. They were about as effective as a Jawa using a droid restraining bolt on a rancor.

Even so, the Jedi felt obligated to at least try. The four Jedi occupied a high level balcony in the building just behind the row of cannons, along with Captain Rex and Commander Cody. As the group watched the blue energy blasts slam into the approaching shield, a feeling of resignation settled upon them.

Shaking his head, Cody was the first to acknowledge the obvious.

"It's no use, sir. Even at full power, the cannons don't affect it."

"We had to try." Obi-Wan sighed. "Tell the crews to stop firing."

"Yes sir." Cody nodded, then spoke into his wrist com. "All cannons, cease fire, cease fire."

A few moments later, after firing one last salvo, the three cannons fell silent. The echo of the sound of their firing continued for a few seconds, bouncing off of the adjacent skyscrapers, but then that tapered off as well. An eerie silence filled the city, the only noise being the low, distant hum of the shield generator.

"What are we going to do?" Ahsoka's nervous voice broke the silence. She was gingerly massaging her montrals; with her sensitive hearing, the noise and concussion had been even more uncomfortable for her than it had been for Torian.

"Our ability to street fight will be limited without the use of heavy cannons... I suppose we could try to draw them into the buildings, that might level the field a bit." Rex said.

"But then there'll be nothing standing between the droids and our cannons..." Anakin responded.

"And eventually they'll figure out that they can just shoot out the support pillars." Cody added, shaking his head. "We may not have a choice though. Should I give the order sir?" He turned his head to look at Kenobi, who had the final say in what their strategy would be.

While the older men talked, Torian had been deep in thought. An idea had popped into his head, a risky plan that would eliminate the shield problem entirely, but he couldn't work up the courage to voice it to the others.

Torian stood there squirming, trying to convince himself that his idea was a good one, when he felt a strange tingling sensation from the Force. The tingling grew stronger, and he felt an unexplainable urge to look at Ahsoka. He was surprised to see that she was already looking at him, and they locked eyes for a brief moment, his violet irises staring into her blue ones. In that moment, Ahsoka and Torian both realized that the Force was telling them they both had the same idea, although Ahsoka's was less refined than the human's.

Knowing-somehow-that it would be up to her to actually say the idea aloud, Ahsoka broke their staring contest and spoke to the others.

"Why don't we just take out the generator?" She gulped and seemed to shrink slightly as all eyes turned towards her.

"Easier said than done, kid. How would we get past the droids? There's no way to go around them fast enough to reach the generator before they reach our cannons." Rex said skeptically.

Everyone focused their attention on Anakin when he cleared his throat. "Well I, for one..." he hesitated, as if he was going to regret his next words, "agree with her. We have to take out that shield."

"But how, sir?" Rex replied, then looked back to Ahsoka. "Did you have an idea, Commander?"

Torian was confused when he sensed a very uncharacteristic amount of fear and even anxiety coming from Ahsoka, as she withered under the intense gazes of the others. Even more baffling was the sudden surge of confidence in Torian himself, and he spoke before he even realized what he was doing.

"Cody, do you have a map of the city?"

Taken aback by the authority in the voice of the normally timid Jedi, Cody silently pulled a small holo-projector from his belt. Holding the device in his hand, he pressed a few keys and a holographic map of the city appeared above his hand. The map displayed a blue indicator above their current position, and the huge red shield could be seen slowly advancing across the bridge.

Torian stared intently at the map, apparently searching for something. The others just looked at each other in confusion, none of them except for Ahsoka knowing what Torian was looking for.

"There!" He exclaimed, pointing at a tall building that was alongside the bridge, about a kilometer away from them. The building stood about 50 meters away from the edge of the bridge, much closer than most of the other buildings.

"The building? What about it?" Obi-Wan asked, sure now that his padawan was formulating some kind of plan.

Tori turned to the others and spoke rapidly. "The way to get past the droids is to let _them _get past _us_. The building is about 2/3rds of the way between us and the approaching shield. If we move fast, we can get a small team into that building before the droids reach it. Then all they have to do is wait for the droids to go by, jump back to the bridge, and sprint down the bridge to the generator while the rest of us hold the line for as long as possible."

There was silence for a few moments, and Tori felt the surge of confidence start to drain away. Their skepticism hit him like a wave, bringing back his ever-present headache that he hadn't even realized was gone. Maybe it wasn't such a good plan after all...

"It's awfully risky..." Cody spoke up. "But I think it's our best chance."

"Taking out the generator could be a bit tricky, however. We don't have much remaining in the way of heavy weapons, and it's likely to be well defended." Obi-Wan added.

"Skyguy and I can handle it!" Ahsoka proclaimed, her confidence having returned and too excited to question what had just transpired between her and Tori. She started running toward the approaching shield and called over her shoulder, "C'mon Master, lets go!"

This sent Rex into another fit of chuckling, though Cody just looked confused. "Skyguy?"

Anakin shoved his face into his palm and muttered, "Don't ask". He then turned on his heel and hurried to catch up with the speedy Togruta. "If we make it through this, _Snips,_ you and I are gonna have a talk!"

Now it was Torian's turn to laugh-he was _definitely_ calling Ahsoka 'Snips' every chance he got. It was only fair, since she called him 'Tori' and 'grouch'.

"Skyguy?" Cody murmured, still confused. He then shook his head and returned to his typical stoicism. "Do you think they can do it, sir?"

"They'd better, or there'll be no escape for any of us." Obi-Wan replied somberly. He opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by the reappearance of both Anakin and Ahsoka.

Obi-Wan took one look at their identical sheepish grins and sighed. "You forgot what building it was, didn't you?"

|-O-|

_This is it. My first battle._

The thought repeated in Torian's mind as he crouched behind a large chunk of rubble that was only slightly taller than him. He couldn't stop the slight shaking in his hands as he gripped his lightsaber, nor the sweat that rolled down the back of his neck. He tried to steady his ragged breathing as the slow, cadenced stomping of the approaching droid army grew louder and louder with each step.

Torian looked enviously at his master, who was completely calm and relaxed as he spoke to Commander Cody and Captain Rex.

"Are the men in position?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Just stay away from those tanks."

"Yes sir!" They both responded, then turned and hurried back to their respective units.

Obi-Wan watched them go, then turned to his struggling padawan. The boy was radiating fear and anxiety. "What's on your mind, Tori?"

Too agitated to notice that his master shortened his name, Torian took an unsteady breath and said, "This is my first real fight, Master. I'm..."

"Scared." Obi-Wan finished for him with a understanding smile.

"Yes." Tori said quietly, shame in his voice and on his face. Fear was one of the most dangerous emotions, one that could rapidly drag even the most stalwart Jedi over to the dark side. At least, that's what the teachers at the temple said.

"Frankly, I'd be worried if you weren't."

To say that Torian was stunned would be an understatement. A Jedi Master saying that he should be afraid? He gaped at Obi-Wan for a few moments, trying to figure out what he should say. The most intelligent response he could come up with was, "huh?"

Kenobi's face was grim and his voice low when he explained, "Far too many young Jedi like yourself have been killed in this war because they were so overconfident in their own abilities. In their arrogance they charge into battle, believing they are invincible, only to get themselves and their soldiers killed because they were rash and 'fearless'." Obi-Wan's face turned somber, as the memories of attending so many funerals ran through his mind. Locking eyes with his padawan, he said, "Being afraid means that you won't take unnecessary risks. You'll actually think things through before leading men into battle."

Torian pondered this for a moment, then asked, "But Master, doesn't fear lead to the dark side? That's what I've always been taught."

Obi-Wan placed a hand on Tori's shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. "If you let your fear control you and influence your actions, yes. Everyone feels fear, Torian. What matters is how you respond to it. Trust in the Force and the Code; let them guide you, and you will not be afraid."

Tori wanted to blurt out that the Force had never seemed interested in helping him with anything, but he kept his mouth shut and merely nodded.

Obi-Wan looked away and peeked over the piece of rubble. The hum of repulsorlifts and the stomping of durasteel feet was close enough now to make the ground vibrate.

"They're almost here." He said. He then closed his eyes and began taking slow, deep breaths. Torian was puzzled at first, but quickly realized that Obi-Wan was doing some kind of pre-battle meditation.

Torian closed his own eyes, trying to mimic his master, but to no avail. He had plenty of experience meditating, and was one of the few Jedi his age who actually realized the value of it, but this situation was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

It was easy to achieve the calmness and tranquility needed for true meditation when he was alone in the temple gardens. There it was quiet, and peaceful, with no distractions and-most importantly-no people. But now he was in a war zone, surrounded by blasterfire, pain, and death. How could he reach 'inner peace' when surrounded by war?

Tori's eyes flew open when the energy shield suddenly passed over them, and a sound like rolling thunder flooded his ears. Blasterfire erupted all around him, red and blue light flashing overhead like two great beasts colliding. Clone troopers began falling, smoking holes in their stomachs, chests and heads. One was struck by a cannon blast from an AAT, and he simply disappeared, leaving only a few chunks of leg and arm behind.

Before Torian could truly process what he was witnessing, a blue-white shaft of light appeared in the air next to him. He looked up and saw his master standing tall, lightsaber in hand. The older man moved his arms gracefully and effortlessly, deflecting blaster bolts with his blade as if they were mildly annoying insects.

When Tori reached out with his senses, he could feel the Force flowing through Obi-Wan like a lazy stream of water in a quiet, peaceful forest. He was calm and focused, without any hint of fear or worry. Just as he had told Torian to do, Obi-Wan was letting the power of the Force guide his hand, completely devoid of any fear and confident that doing so meant he would not fail.

Mustering up as much courage as he could manage, Torian stood up and activated his own lightsaber. The energy blade hummed deeply as it sprang to life, radiating power. The blue blade was unusually dark; rather than blue-white like Obi-Wan's lightsaber, it was more of a pure navy color. It looked like a blade that would belong to a Jedi Master, one who was a prodigious swordsman and nothing like the mediocre padawan that was currently wielding it.

Before Torian could even lift up his lightsaber to deflect the red beams of energy and protect the clone troopers around him, a stampede of emotions assaulted his mind and caused his legs to buckle beneath him. Kneeling on the ground with one hand clutching his head and the other holding his deactivated lightsaber, Torian tried to fight off the torrent of determination, fear, pain, and everything else that the several hundred clone troopers around him were feeling.

Feeling like his head was going to explode, it took Torian a few seconds to realize that his master was standing over him. His lightsaber danced around, deflecting blaster shots and slicing up droids, doing his best to anchor the defense. Obi-Wan shouted something, but Torian couldn't hear him. In fact, he couldn't hear _anything_. The whine of blasters, the clanging of droid feet, the shouts of clone troopers... all was silent, like he was watching a holo-film with the sound muted.

Torian had experienced this before. It happened when he became so overwhelmed by the feelings of the beings around him, that his mind tried to lessen the pressure and pain by blocking out his physical senses, typically his hearing and, strangely, his sense of smell. He could force those senses to return, albeit painfully.

Closing his eyes, Torian willed his hearing to return. Like the flick of a light switch, Torian's world went from a dead silence to standing next to a sublight-engine at full power. The putrid smell of seared flesh and spilt blood assaulted his nose, and it was all he could do to not empty his stomach onto the ground. He nearly blacked out from the effort, but he managed to hold on to consciousness and finally heard what his master was trying to tell him.

"Torian, listen to me!" There was a grunt followed by the sound of a lightsaber cutting through metal. "Do not fight them! Accept them, and let the Force carry them away!"

After Obi-Wan stopped speaking, Torian immediately ended his concentration, rendering the world silent and blessedly scent-free once again. He grimaced as he thought about what Obi-Wan said, having heard the same lecture countless times from other masters at the temple.

He had always been terrified of following their advice. He was afraid that if he "accepted" the emotions of the beings around him his mind would eventually fracture from the strain. That was the fate that had befallen most of the Jedi in history who also had his gift. The most recent one died over 200 years ago, after going insane and being confined to a psyche ward for most of his adult life.

But Torian was beginning to realize that he didn't really have a choice. It was either do as his master said, so that he could at least stand up and defend himself, or get shot by a droid.

With a deep breath, Torian conceded defeat and slowly brought down the walls around his mind that he had spent years building.

|-O-|

Anakin and Ahsoka could feel the floor vibrating faintly as the army of battle droids marched down the bridge, intent on destroying the clones once and for all. The shield had just passed over the building they were hiding in, and they now waited for the last of the droids and tanks to pass by.

Peeking over the balcony they were hiding on, Anakin caught sight of a strange looking alien riding in one of the AAT's in the middle of the droid army. His torso stuck out of the opened turret hatch, and he was holding a set of binoculars to his face.

"Who is that?" Ahsoka asked, having also noticed the alien.

Anakin glanced at her before turning his attention back to the bridge. "General Loathsom. He's one of the Seperatists' best generals, though that really isn't saying much."

They stayed in their hidden perch for a few more minutes, watching the long column of war machines pass by. When the last row of droids had finally gone by, Anakin stood up. "That's the last of 'em. Let's-," there was a sudden _woosh _of air as Ahsoka stepped up onto the guard rail of the balcony and used it to launch herself across the space between the building and the bridge. She landed with a graceful roll, and looked at her master expectantly. "-go."

Anakin let out an exasperated sigh before leaping over to the bridge, landing next to Ahsoka.

"Come on Master, the sooner we take out that shield the better!" Ahsoka was already bouncing with adrenaline, and started sprinting up the bridge toward the shield generator.

Anakins eyes widened as she recklessly ran off, and he sprinted after her, struggling to keep up with the nimble Togruta. "Ahsoka, wait! Stop!"

Ahsoka ignored him. She could _see _the shield generator, sitting in the middle of a plaza about 50 meters beyond the point where the bridge ended, about a kilometer away from her. The quicker they got to the generator and destroyed it, the quicker the battle would end and the fewer clones would be killed.

As she sprinted around the smoking hulk of a destroyed AAT, she collided face-first with something hard and made of metal. With a yelp she fell backwards and landed on her rear, her hand clutching her bleeding and probably broken nose. Looking up with slightly watery eyes, Ahsoka froze in shock when she found herself looking into the glowing red eyes of a droideka.

Standing on three spider-like legs that were attached to a curved metal spine, the droideka was the deadliest of the droid army's infantry units. It's two arms each had a dual blaster cannon instead of a hand, and the miniaturized deflector shield generator it carried made it exceedingly difficult to take down.

Her bleeding nose forgotten, Ahsoka rolled backwards to a standing position and ignited her emerald-green lightsaber as the droideka opened fire. Using her unorthodox reverse grip, she deflected the blaster shots with relative ease, though she had no idea how to get through the droideka's shield. The situation only got worse when suddenly a second droideka appeared and opened fire, turning the flurry of blaster bolts into a torrent.

The amount of blasterfire Ahsoka was having to deal with had suddenly doubled, and she was about to be overwhelmed when she heard the familiar _snap-hiss _of a lightsaber being activated. Her Master's blue-white blade appeared at her side, taking the brunt of the droideka's assault. Finally able to breathe, Ahsoka tried to come up with a plan for taking out the shielded war machines.

"We can't beat its shield! What do we do?"

"Run." Anakin said calmly in response, having a much easier time deflecting the fire from the droidekas.

Ahsoka did a double take, not sure she had heard him correctly. "What? Jedi don't run!"

"I said, _run!_" He responded more forcefully this time. Not giving her a chance to argue, he immediately turned around and began running away from the droidekas, swinging his lightsaber behind him.

Seeing that she had no real choice, Ahsoka quickly followed suit. She didn't understand why they were running, especially since they were running towards the army of droids that they had gone to so much effort to avoid. She was about to ask Anakin what in the world he was planning, when he said something that only made her more confused.

"Ahsoka, stop!"

Now she was certain that her master was crazy.

Ahsoka was about to tell him so, when she glanced behind her and immediately realized what Anakin was planning. When the two Jedi started running, the droidekas had ceased firing and folded their bodies into a ball. They were now rolling along behind the Jedi, keeping pace with them so they couldn't escape. While this ability made them highly mobile, there was a distinct disadvantage to being rolling death-balls: they could not use their shields while rolling.

"I _said, _stop!"

Not needing to be told a third time, Ahsoka stopped running and turned to face the approaching droidekas. By the time the closest droideka came to a screeching halt and began to unfold its body, Ahsoka had already closed the distance and cut the droid in half. Anakin did the same to the remaining droideka, slicing it into small pieces.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Anakin deactivated his lightsaber and gave Ahsoka a scathing look. "You take direction well." He then turned on his heel and started jogging in the direction they had come from.

Ahsoka's shoulders slumped, a sad sigh escaping her mouth. She wanted to be angry at Anakin, but knew that she was at fault. She had let her pride and recklessness cloud her judgement, something that Master Yoda had warned her to be careful of before she left the temple.

Charging towards the generator even though it was likely to be defended, thinking she could handle the droidekas alone, questioning her Master's decisions even though he clearly knew what he was doing...today definitely wasn't going as well as she had hoped.

As Ahsoka ran to catch up to Anakin, her thoughts drifted to the two Jedi on the other end of the bridge. She wondered how Tori was doing, and if he'd managed to screw something up yet...

Ahsoka jerked to a halt as an odd feeling came upon her then, as though she were feeling distressed and in pain. The strange thing about it, was that the emotion felt... foreign, like it didn't belong to her or originate from her mind, yet at the same time it wasn't the same feeling she got when she would reach out with her senses to read another being's emotions. She had no idea who it belonged too, or how she even knew that it wasn't hers.

As a Force-sensitive with Jedi training, Ahsoka was no stranger to sensing other beings emotions. However, like other Jedi she usually had to actively reach out with the Force in order to do so. This feeling she had now, had appeared completely unbidden and without warning.

"Ahsoka?" Anakin, upon realizing that Ahsoka had stopped following him, turned around and saw her standing motionless, a glazed, faraway look in her eyes. "Ahsoka, what are you doing? We need to get moving!"

She continued to stare at nothing, oblivious to world. Anakin's expression changed from irritation to concern as he watched Ahsoka's blank face, wondering what had gotten into the girl.

Thinking that perhaps he had been too harsh on her earlier, Anakin walked closer to her and gingerly set his hand on her shoulder, bending down so that their faces were even. "Snips? You in there?"

The hand on her shoulder seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she was in. "Huh? What?" She shook her head as she got her bearings. She looked at the hand on her shoulder in confusion, then shifted her gaze to the owner of the hand. "Master?" Her voice was loud, almost shouting.

"Ahsoka, you've been standing here staring off into space. I called your name three times and you didn't respond. What the heck has gotten into you?"

Ahsoka stared at him uncomprehendingly as he spoke. "I... I can't hear you!" Her voice was still loud, and her hands flew to her montrals in panic. She closed her eyes and began tapping her montrals repeatedly.

Meanwhile, Anakin was doing his best to not panic. Something was seriously wrong with Ahsoka, and they were running out of time to complete their mission. Obi-Wan and the clones were counting on them, and every second of delay increased the likelihood that they wouldn't be able to take down the shield before the clones were overrun.

Anakin was considering taking Ahsoka back to the building and completing the mission himself, when she opened her eyes and looked at him cautiously.

"Master?" Her voice was back to normal volume, though it was shaky and nervous.

"Can you hear me?" Was his response.

Ahsoka's hands dropped and her body sagged with relief when she heard his voice. "Yes, I can hear you."

Anakin sighed with relief. "Good. Now..." he crossed his arms stood up to his full height. "What the _hell _just happened, Snips?"

Ahsoka's gaze dropped to her feet and she wrapped her arms around her stomach. Her body closed in on itself, making her seem much more fragile and weak than usual. "I don't know, Master. I got this really strange feeling through the Force, then I couldn't hear anything and...and..." she sniffled, her body shuddering. She couldn't find the words to describe what she had felt after the world went silent.

Anakin's face softened when he sensed how distressed and afraid she was. Right now, she wasn't a Jedi; she was a frightened teenager on a strange world in the middle of a war, something he could relate to. He also felt a bit guilty about how unkind he'd been to her earlier.

His hand found its way back to her shoulder, this time giving it a light squeeze. "Deep breaths, Ahsoka. We can talk about it later. For now, let's just focus on completing the mission. Obi-Wan, Tori, and the clones are counting on us."

The reminder of the importance of their role in this battle was enough to drive away Ahsoka's fear and and confusion, at least for now. Squaring her shoulders, she took a deep breath and nodded. "Okay, I'm good."

Anakin was relieved to see the girl's fire return, though he could still sense some lingering worry in her mind. Quickly thinking of a way to keep her distracted, Anakin smirked as turned away and started jogging. "I bet you can't take out more droids than me before we get to the generator."

Ahsoka's spirit brightened further, as the lingering uncertainty dissipated and was replaced by competitiveness and pride, as well as a tiny smidgen of gratitude. "Hope you're ready to lose, Skyguy!" She quickly caught up with him, but forced herself to not sprint ahead like before.

Anakin was pleased that his little challenge seemed to work as he intended, though here was more to Ahsoka's resurgence than he realized. Just before she took off after her master, Ahsoka's mind had processed the fact that he said they would talk about her little episode 'later'. That wouldn't be possible if she was sent back to the temple to be assigned to someone else, and that thought sparked a tiny nugget of hope that Anakin just might be warming up to the idea of having her as an apprentice.

|-O-|

Torian tried not to flinch as he was briefly engulfed by a shower of sparks. Yanking his lightsaber out of the now smoking battle droid, he had only a moment to catch his breath before he felt a warning nudge through the Force. Raising his saber just before the red blaster bolt could take off his head, he deflected it away and lunged forward with a downward strike, slicing the offending droid in half. Another nudge made him duck low and lunge forward, avoiding a trio of shots and impaling an SBD in one not-quite-graceful motion.

He straightened up, lightsaber at the ready to fend off another attack and quickly assessed the situation. He, his master, and the remaining clones were fighting inside the foyer of a barely standing husk of a building that spanned the width of the bridge, about 700 meters from the cannons. They had been steadily pushed back from the defensive line they'd built, and were now hunkered down in what likely used to be a security checkpoint.

The roof had caved in in several areas, providing ample cover for the clones. The walls were still mostly intact, forcing the droids to funnel through the two doors and the small holes in the wall that had been created by exploding grenades. The battle droids were easy targets, and by now all of the openings had a large pile of scrapped droids that served to impede the progress of the droids that kept pouring into the building. The battle had stabilized somewhat, the droid army unable to break the line and the clones unable to launch any kind of counterattack.

However, Torian was surprised when the tidal wave of the clones' emotions that continuously roared through his mind gradually changed from anger, cold determination and fear, to confusion, then relief followed by a rising sense of elation. When he looked around the building's vast interior, he began to realize the reason behind the clones' shifting emotions and shared their excitement. For whatever reason, the flow of droids had stopped, and the few that still functioned were being picked off by blue blasterfire.

As the blasterfire tapered off, Torian looked across the foyer in time to see his master cut down the last three SBD's in one swing of his lightsaber. When the clatter caused by their metal bodies hitting the ground finally ceased, the building descended into an eerie, almost unnatural silence, interrupted only by the deep hum of lightsabers and the creaking of armor as the clone troopers squirmed. The feelings of elation were replaced by nervous hope and trepidation, everyone wanting to believe that the droids had given up and were retreating but knowing that that was almost certainly not the case. The absence of droid marching was proof enough.

After a few moments of tense silence, the Jedi and clone troopers alike waiting for the quiet to be broken by the whine of blasters and crashing of durasteel, Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber and ran towards a large piece of rubble in the middle of the foyer. Seeing that Cody and Rex were already there and realizing that as a commander he should probably be privy to whatever conversation they were about to have, Torian followed his master's lead.

The three officers were already deep in conversation when the padawan arrived, with Rex and Cody trying to decide what to do.

"I don't like this Rex, something's not right..."

"We need to get some eyes on the clankers, see what they're up to."

"What do you think, General?" Both clones turned their helmets to Obi-Wan.

The General thought for moment, then said, "I saw a maintenance ladder out back that leads to the roof. Rex, take a squad up and see what you can see."

"Yes, sir!" As Rex turned away to carry out his orders, Obi-Wan focused his attention on his padawan. The boy was covered in sweat and dirt with some smattering of blood, but for the most part seemed to be physically in one piece. However, It was Torian's mental health that Obi-Wan was most concerned about.

"Doing alright, my padawan?"

Torian sighed and gave a noncommittal shrug. "My head feels like it's going to melt instead of explode, so... I'm okay, I guess. I'm trying to do as you told me, and it seems to be working well enough." It was true, the Force was flowing through Torian more strongly than it ever had, carrying away the dizzying barrage of emotions just as Obi-Wan said it would. Resisting the instinct to fight against the current of emotion was taxing, but it was working even though his head still felt horrible. It was like cauterizing a bleeding wound: it prevented you from dying, but you still _felt _like you were dying.

Obi-Wan smirked, sending reassuring thoughts and feelings to his apprentice. "Well, at least _melted _is less messy than _exploded_." As Obi-Wan hoped, Tori's Force signature flared with amusement and his inner turmoil lessened a bit at his master's comment.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure it gets all over your shiny armor."

Obi-Wan shared a short laugh with his padawan, though he quickly sobered and gave Tori an intense look. "In all seriousness, you're doing well Padawan. I'm confident that with practice and time-"

Torian flinched when his master's hand suddenly clamped down on his shoulder like a vice. Before he could ask what was wrong, Torian was shoved face-first into the dirt while Obi-Wan's roaring voice echoed throughout the building.

"_Get down!_"

Half a second later, a heavy weight fell across Torian's back just before the wall between them and the droid army exploded. Four more explosions followed the first, each turning the chunks of duracrete rubble into deadly projectiles. Torian's ears were still ringing when he felt rather than heard the heavy stomping of approaching battle droids and the roar of their blasterfire. Unable to get up due to the weight still draped across his back, he could only assume that the droids were now swarming into the building through the large gaps the explosions had made. Turning his head, Torian caught a glimpse of his master's reddish-brown hair. Unbridled terror filled his heart as he realized that the weight holding him down was _his master's body_, and the man _wasn't moving._

Unable to move and unable to see what was going on, Torian could only lay there as fear wrapped around his heart and began to squeeze. His master was dead, the clone troopers were dying and he could _feel_ their agony and despair as their lives were snuffed out. The droids were going to win because he was technically in command now and he didn't know how to lead and everyone was going to die because of him and he shouldn't even be on this Force-forsaken planet and-

Torian was suddenly able to breathe again as the weight that had been physically trapping him rose up and began bellowing orders, completely derailing the downward spiral of fear that had begun to morph into anger.

"Cody, tell the men to fall back! Tori and I will delay them as long as we can!"

Pushing himself up to his hands and knees and trying to ignore the rising sense of panic and desperation he was getting from the clones, Torian looked up to see Cody and his master staring at one another. Tori didn't need to see underneath Cody's helmet to know that the clone was giving Obi-Wan a look of disbelief.

"But sir-!"

"That is an _order _commander!" Obi-Wan suddenly lunged upwards and ignited his lightsaber, impaling an SBD that was trying to climb over their cover. Cody didn't even flinch as the droid's body went flying over his shoulder, a sparking hole in the middle of its chest.

"Y-yes sir!"

While Cody gave the order to retreat, Torian felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to face his master. The fear that had nearly engulfed him earlier still lingered in the shadows, like a predator waiting to strike at the first sign of weakness, but when Torian met his master's gaze the peace and determination he radiated was like standing next to a star. Torian latched on to the star's bright light, blue like Obi-Wan's lightsaber, and it drove away the shadow and locked the predator in a cage that would at least temporarily contain it.

"Stay close to me, Padawan." Without waiting for a reply, Obi-Wan stood up and sliced through another pair of battle droids.

Trying to focus on his master's unwavering calmness and not the fear fighting to break free from its prison, Torian took a deep breath and ignited his own lightsaber. Standing up, he faltered slightly at the sight of hundreds of battle droids pouring into the building. The durasteel bars of the cage buckled, but didn't break as he lifted his lightsaber to block blaster bolts and slice up any droids that came too close.

Torian wasn't sure how long he and his master stood alone against the onslaught, but it was long enough that the burning ache and fatigue in his limbs became impossible to ignore. As his movements slowed the number of near-misses grew, and burn marks began to appear on his limbs as the near-misses turned into grazes. The cage buckled further, and the predator was about to break free when suddenly-the shooting stopped.

Torian stood back-to-back with his master, chest heaving and limbs trembling as the swarm of droids parted around them. They were surrounded, penned in by several dozen battle droids with their blasters raised and ready but silent.

This unexpected standoff went on for a few seconds until Torian glanced over his shoulder, careful to keep one eye on the droids in front of him. "Master... why did they stop shooting?"

While he spoke, the rumble of repulsorlift engines became audible as an AAT squeezed through the largest hole that had been created by the explosions, stopping just outside the ring of droids. The tank's main gun depressed until it was aiming at the feet of the two Jedi, and Torian briefly wondered if it was possible to deflect a heavy laser cannon. The image of his arm being ripped off from trying to do so played in his mind, and he decided he would rather not find out.

"Follow my lead, Padawan." Obi-Wan abruptly shut off his lightsaber, and Torian gawked at him for a few moments until a nudge from his master-both with his elbow and the Force-made him follow suit. The tank's top hatch opened, and a being of some alien species Torian didn't recognize started climbing out of the tank.

Two SBDs stepped forward to escort the short alien through the ring and Torian couldn't stop himself from thinking that, on a scale of 'one' to 'Cato Nemoidian', this guy was a solid seven in terms of ugliness. Another Force nudge from his master conveyed disapproval and a number: eight.

The alien was overflowing with pride and arrogance, though Torian also detected a faint undercurrent of relief as he marched up to them. He stopped a few meters away, mouth curled into what Torian assumed was a smile. The two SBDs continued forward, reaching out and roughly relieving the Jedi of their lightsabers before marching backwards to stand next to the alien.

"So. You must be the infamous General Kenobi. The Negotiator."

"And you must be General Loathsom. This is my padawan, Torian Cadera." Obi-Wan's voice was genial as he introduced his padawan, who was trying not to snicker at the Separatist general's name.

Loathsom didn't even spare Torian a glance as he began to gloat, almost vibrating with glee at having both defeated and captured the legendary Jedi Master. "Your troops are scattered, and your space fleet has abandoned you. You are beaten, Kenobi."

Obi-Wan nodded, his face grim. "So it would appear." With a wave of his hand, three chunks of rubble-one large and two small-flew over the ring of droids and landed gently in front of Loathsom, forming a makeshift table with two chairs.

Torian could only look on in disbelief. His master couldn't _seriously _be considering surrender, right? He felt another nudge, this time one of encouragement and a request for patience.

Obi-Wan sat down and gave Loathsom a small, indulgent smile. "Now we just need to discuss terms of surrender."

Loathsom's pride turned to confusion and suspicion as he slowly lowered himself onto the makeshift chair. He had expected much more resistance from the esteemed General. "Don't try any of your tricks, Jedi."

|-O-|

Ahsoka crouched low to the ground with her lightsaber ignited, primal hunting instincts that were ingrained into every Togrutan's DNA driving her to bare her fangs at her foe. The towering war droid-she mentally dubbed it a 'canni', since it really looked like nothing more than a tipped over fuel canister with legs and blaster cannons for arms-raised it's blaster cannons and prepared to fire, and Ahsoka felt a flash of disappointment. She wasn't with Master Shaak-Ti on her homeworld of Shili, hunting an akul for its teeth so she could make the traditional Togrutan headdress. There would be no thrill of stalking an intelligent, dangerous predator that was just as much of a threat to her as she was to it; just a slow, brainless droid that knew how to do little more than walk and shoot.

Drawing on her connection to the Force, Ahsoka sprang up and over the three meter tall droid. The lumbering mass of durasteel was stupidly trying to figure out where the small organic went, when a green lightsaber severed the joint connecting the canni's legs to its canister. When the top half of the canni began to fall backwards, Ahsoka thrust out her hand and Force pushed the droid's remains away from her a little bit harder than absolutely necessary. The canister part of the droid landed a few meters away and rolled, not far from where Anakin had just finished off the last of the cannis.

Ahsoka was busy congratulating herself when her master let out an angry yell.

"Ahsoka! Who's side are you on!"

Looking over at her master in confusion, Ahsoka cringed as she realized her mistake. The rolling canister had triggered over a dozen of the wires that were sticking up out of the ground, summoning even _more _cannis. The droids erupted from the duracrete road and opened fire on Anakin.

"I'm sorry!" First the droidekas, and now this? Today really wasn't her day.

Anakin gave her a withering glare and snarled, "I'll handle the droids, just set those charges!"

Grimacing, Ahsoka sighed as she shrugged off her backpack containing the explosives. Holding the backpack in front of her, she did a lap around the shield generator, placing the explosives as she went. Once the last charge was placed and linked with the detonator, Ahsoka turned her attention to the cannis trying to kill her master.

By now Anakin had whittled their numbers down to seven, but he had managed to get himself caught between a free-standing wall and the remaining droids. Ahsoka grabbed her lightsaber off her belt and was about to jump to her master's aid, when she noticed that the wall behind him had a conveniently Anakin-sized hole in it. If he moved backwards just a little bit more...

There.

"Skyguy, don't move!" Not waiting for a response, Ahsoka lifted her hands and grabbed the wall with the Force, this time pulling instead of pushing.

"Ahsoka, wha-" Anakin heard the sound of duracrete grinding against duracrete, and looked up in time to see a wall of... well, _wall_ about to crush him. "No no no-!" The wall landed with a loud crash, hard enough to shake the ground like a tiny ground-quake.

As the dust settled, Anakin cautiously opened his eyes and looked down at himself. Satisfied that he wasn't crushed underneath several tons of duracrete, unlike the droids he'd been facing, Anakin breathed a sigh of relief before turning to glare at his padawan who was jogging towards him.

"Ahsoka, you could've gotten me _killed_!"

"I know what I'm doing!" Her smug grin rapidly turned into a frown.

"You almost crushed me!"

"But I didn't, _and _I saved your life!"

The frown was now a glare. Padawan and unwilling master engaged in a heated stare-down, neither willing to swallow their pride. It lasted about 30 seconds before Anakin remembered they had a mission to complete.

"Did you plant the charges?"

"Yes."

"Then what are you waiting for."

Ahsoka held up the detonator and pressed down with her thumb, not breaking eye-contact until the deafening explosion and flying metal caused her to flinch. Anakin turned towards the distant battle and watched as the energy shield disappeared. Once the echoes of the explosion finally died away, the distant thunder of artillery could be heard as the heavy cannons started pounding the droids.

Deciding to listen to Obi-Wan's advice for once, Anakin took a moment to calm himself before turning back to Ahsoka. She was no longer standing next to him, but had sat herself down on the edge of the fallen wall. Her skinny arms were wrapped around her legs, chin resting on her knees. Anakin reached out to her with the Force, and sensed that she was practically drowning in shame and despair.

Anakin kicked himself-again-for being overly harsh with her. Pulling down the wall had been incredibly risky, but it was also eerily similar to a stunt he had pulled when he and Obi-Wan fell into a nest of gundarks, except he'd collapsed an entire cave and not just a wall. It was one of the few times in his life that Anakin had seen his master truly angry, if only briefly.

Now that he thought about it, Anakin began to realize just how similar he and Ahsoka really were. Impulsive, reckless, using bravado and arrogance to hide just how scared they really were... but most of all, determined to prove that they deserved to be a Jedi. Ahsoka was strong with the Force, and had the potential to be an exceptional Jedi-but only if she was allowed to retain at least some of the fire and spunk that made her _her_.

Under any other Jedi, she would be stifled by their constant badgering to control her strong emotions and be the good little unfeeling Jedi she was supposed to be. She would never be allowed to truly flourish, and Anakin decided he would not-_could _not-let that happen. He wasn't at all confident that he would be a good teacher, but Obi-Wan seemed to believe in him and would be willing to help him, so...

Ahsoka flinched as Anakin crouched in front of her, probably thinking he was going to berate her yet again.

"You're reckless, little one. You never would've made it as Obi-Wan's padawan." Her head dropped down, so that now her forehead rested on her knees and she didn't have to look at him. "But you just might make it as mine."

Ahsoka jerked her head up in astonishment, her face and Force signature lighting up with pure joy. The ecstatic smile she gave Anakin told him that he'd made the right decision.

He gave her a small smile and stood up. She continued to stare at him in wonder and disbelief even as he started to walk away, so he gave her a smirk over his shoulder and said, "If we hurry, we might get back in time to help finish of the droids."

That was enough to break Ahsoka out of her stupor. She jumped up and skipped more than ran after him, unable and unwilling to contain her happiness.

|-O-|

So far, Torian's first day with his new master hadn't gone at all like he expected. His fantasies about how everything would go catastrophically wrong had varied between getting stepped on by an AT-TE to somehow getting eaten by a rancor. He was still alive, somehow, though given the current situation that could soon change.

Held in place by a pair of SBD's who seemed intent on crushing his arms with their hands, Torian wracked his brain for some kind of plan that would get him and his master out of their current predicament alive. The two generals had been 'negotiating' terms of surrender for nearly twenty minutes now, and Torian could tell by Loathsom's rising suspicion and anger that he was beginning to realize what Torian had figured out fifteen minutes ago: General Kenobi didn't actually intend to surrender, and was just trying to buy time for Anakin and Ahsoka.

When Loathsom suddenly began to seethe with rage, Torian knew the jig was up.

"And of course, provisions will need to be made for my troops' food and shelter. Tell me, do you have enough supplies to-"

Loathsom growled in frustration and smashed his hands on their makeshift table. "Enough of this! You are _stalling_!"

"Nonsense, General. There are numerous details to-"

Loathsom roared and, displaying a surprising amount of strength, grabbed one end of their table and flipped it over, ruining the tea that Obi-Wan had insisted was completely necessary for their discussion.

"Seize him!" Loathsom marched forward as two SBD's grabbed Obi-Wan by the arms and lifted him into the air. "Unless you call off your troops right now, I will have no choice but to destroy you!"

"Truthfully, I hoped your shield would be gone by now." Obi-Wan glanced up at the energy shield in disappointment. Torian felt his disappointment and worry, and guessed that he was also wondering if something had happened to Anakin and Ahsoka.

Apparently the Force was on their side, because a few moments after Obi-Wan spoke there was distant explosion followed by a light tremor in the ground, and the shield suddenly flickered and died. The next few moments were so silent that one could've heard a pin drop, as Loathsom and his droids stared into the now empty sky in stunned disbelief. Loathsom was so shocked that he didn't even react when Obi-Wan spoke.

"Hmph. Took him long enough." Obi-Wan flexed his core muscles and twisted backwards, essentially doing a backflip while being held up by the droids. The violent twisting motion yanked his arms free from the droids' grip as he landed, and before they could turn their blasters on him he grabbed them with the Forced and smashed them together. The droids went down in a heap of shattered, sparking metal, and Obi-Wan lunged forward to grab Loathsom and put him in a choke-hold.

While this was happening, Torian was also trying to escape his captors. Certain that he would just end up embarrassing himself if he tried to mimic his master's moves, Torian settled for just wrenching his arms free. The droids had loosened their grip as they looked into the sky, and he managed to get one arm free. He was still struggling to free his left arm when the droid realized what was happening. It clamped down on Torian's arm and pulled him across its body, probably intending to grab on to his other arm as well. Unfortunately, the dumb droid forgot that its other hand was currently holding the lightsaber it had appropriated from the older Jedi.

The droid brought its hand up to grab the smaller Jedi's other arm, but when it opened its hand it dropped the lightsaber. By sheer dumb luck, the lightsaber fell into Torian's open hand. Wrapping his fingers around his master's lightsaber, Torian brought his hand up and thumbed the ignition switch, impaling the droid on the blue blade. As the droid fell away, a warning from the Force brought the lightsaber up just in time to deflect a shot from the other droid that had been holding him. Once again Lady Luck smiled on him, as the deflected blaster bolt was sent straight back to its originator, burning a hole through the droid's chest. A bit confused as to how he'd managed to do that, Torian moved so that he was once again back-to-back with his master, unfamiliar lightsaber held up in front of him.

The droid had dropped Torian's lightsaber as it fell, and without even looking Obi-Wan stretched out his hand and summoned the lightsaber. By now, the other battle droids had realized what was happening and were raising their blasters to fire. Even the AAT was turning it's main gun on the Jedi, apparently forgetting who the older Jedi currently had trapped in a choke-hold.

Loathsom blanched when he realized he was staring down the barrel of his own tank's main gun. "No! Don't fire!"

The droids didn't lower their weapons, but they obediently held their fire. A few of them looked at each other in confusion, unable to understand why they were being ordered _not _to shoot the Jedi. They were too dumb to realize that shooting the Jedi meant shooting through their own General.

"Now General, I believe we were discussing surrender?" Obi-Wan smirked as Loathsom floundered for a way out of his predicament.

"But I...you can't... m-my droids have already routed your troops, Kenobi! _You _are the one surrendering!"

"Are you so sure of that?" Obi-Wan hooked Torian's lightsaber to his belt and pulled out a small holo-projector. He pressed a few keys, and clone trooper with distinctive yellow markings on his armor appeared.

"General Kenobi, are you alright sir?"

"Tori and I are fine, Commander. How is the battle going?"

"The shield came down just in time, sir. The cannons wiped most of the clankers out, and we're just mopping up the stragglers." The clone paused, taking in the General's strange position. "Do you, um... need assistance, sir?"

"We're quite alright Cody, just having a chat with the opposing General. We should be along shortly."

"Copy that, sir." Cody nodded and his hologram disappeared.

Obi-Wan put the projector away and smirked down at Loathsom. "Your move, General."

Loathsom sighed and slumped, know that he was beaten. His voice was low and defeated as he raised his wrist comm to his mouth. "All troops, enter shutdown mode. Authorization code Lima-one-one-three-eight."

All of the droids suddenly lowered their blasters and slumped over, most of them falling to the ground. The AAT's repulsorlift engines cut out and it hit the ground with a loud clang.

Torian exhaled in relief as the droids shut down. Deactivating his master's lightsaber, he turned around and nearly fell over as his body realized just how exhausted it was. Quickly sitting down so he wouldn't fall on his face, Torian groaned at the nausea and the throbbing in his head. After so many years, it actually took more effort to bring _down _the walls around his mind than it did to keep them standing, and combined with rigorous fighting the effort had left him completely wiped out.

Obi-Wan was putting a set of binders he'd found onto Loathsom's wrists, when he heard his padawan's pained groan behind him. Turning around, he saw Torian sitting on some rubble, body hunched over in exhaustion with a hand rubbing his forehead. Now that he had the chance to get a good look at his padawan, Obi-Wan noticed the holes burned into his clothing by blasterfire, and the scorched skin where shots had grazed him.

Torian tried to straighten up when his concerned master kneeled in front of him, but the large hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Relax, Tori. The battle is over. We'll get some bacta for those burns, and then you can rest until Admiral Yularen returns." Torian quit trying to sit up, but Obi-Wan was confused by the sudden surge of guilt from his padawan. "Tori?"

"I'm sorry, Master."

Obi-Wan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Whatever for?"

"You shouldn't have to coddle me. Any other padawan wouldn't be such a burden. Ahsoka wouldn't..."

Before he could formulate a response, Obi-Wan heard footsteps and sensed that Anakin was approaching. Torian tensed when he felt Ahsoka's giddiness and pride, and couldn't stop a low moan from leaving his mouth. He tried to release the emotions into the Force, but just couldn't work up the energy to do so.

"You are _not _a burden. We'll discuss this later, Tori." Obi-Wan stood up to greet the two approaching Jedi, and Tori could only sigh in resignation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry about the long delay. Christmas happened, and I'm a slow writer. **

**This is a slower and shorter chapter, but important stuff happens. Next chapter will have lots of action and will finish off the "saving the Hutt" arc. Then we'll start on season 1.**

**I used SaberForge's online lightsaber configurator to design what I think Torian's lightsaber would look like. I couldn't figure out how to make images viewable to the public, and this site won't let me post a link to it, so I just took a screenshot and made it this story's cover image. **¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

**Thanks for the kind reviews :3**

**P.S What did you guys think of The Rise Of Skywalker? I really liked it.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Reflections**

"Tori?"

Ahsoka poked her head through an open doorway, scanning the room it led to for her fellow padawan. She huffed in frustration when she didn't find him, grumbling as she walked down the hall to the next room. Having searched through two floors already, her good mood was beginning to sour as she tried to find where Tori had fallen asleep after being tended to by the medics. The human had been battered and exhausted when Ahsoka and her master found him and Master Kenobi, with multiple blaster burns on his legs and arms.

Ahsoka hadn't been the least bit surprised when she saw Tori's injuries. From what little she knew about him from the temple, he'd never been particularly skilled with a lightsaber, and had passed his initiate trials only by the skin of his teeth. She had honestly expected his injuries to be much worse than a few blaster burns.

What _did _surprise her was Master Kenobi's account of he and his padawan's side of the battle. From the way he described it, the battle had been far more vicious than she realized, and after seeing all of the... bodies, Ahsoka was inclined to believe him. Seeing the devastation wrought by the opposing armies had shaken her, and she hadn't been able to prevent her eyes from watering the first time she saw a fallen clone trooper.

The trooper still had his helmet on-thank the _Force_-but Ahsoka hadn't been able to pull her eyes away from the smoking holes in his torso, nor could she ignore the pool of congealed blood he lay in. The stench of seared flesh, of a fresh corpse that was still warm and had yet to rot, was overpowering, but it was nothing compared to the aura of death that had permeated the Force. The fear and anger and _pain _of the fallen soldiers still hung like a pall over the battlefield, the emotions so visceral and strong that it felt as though the battle had never ended. Flesh burning, bones shattering, bodies being torn apart in every way imaginable... it felt as though the Force itself had suffered all of this and more.

Ahsoka had stood there staring at what had once been a living, breathing person for what felt like an eternity, struggling to withstand the crushing darkness around her, before her master wrapped a strong arm around her and pulled her away. He had gently guided her through the battlefield, mumbling encouragement and steering her clear of the more mangled corpses. The warmth and strength he radiated through the Force was like a beacon, one that she latched onto as a shield against the Dark. They stopped briefly when they found Obi-Wan and Tori, but once they left the crumbling building Master Skywalker once again put an arm around her trembling form, and tried to prevent her eyes from seeing the worst of the bloodshed.

Once they had passed the squads of troopers collecting the bodies of their fallen brothers, the terrible aura had weakened and Anakin had loosened his grip on her, enough so that she was able to turn around and see that Tori was also being guided through the carnage by his master. She'd felt a pang of sympathy when she realized that it was probably even worse for Tori, since he had seen many of those troopers die. If the aura she felt was this terrible after the battle had ended, she didn't want to imagine how much worse it must have been when the fighting still raged.

According to Master Kenobi, Torian had handled himself well, despite a rough start. Ahsoka got the impression that he was leaving out a few details, particularly about the 'rough start', but after seeing first-hand what Tori had been through she had been forced to admit that he had exceeded her expectations. She still wouldn't trust him with her life, but she had gained a new level of respect for her fellow padawan.

That didn't mean Ahsoka wasn't annoyed at being the person sent to find him, though.

She finally found him on the fourth floor, snoring softly on a couch. She stomped over to him, thoroughly irritated and not having any inclination to wake him gently. She stood next to him for a minute, frowning and trying to think of an entertaining way to wake him, one that he'd earned for making himself so hard to find. The frown turned into a wicked and impish grin when she remembered the water canteen on her belt.

Holding the canteen above his head, she took off the lid and twisted her hand.

The resulting yelp of surprise and flailing of limbs was quite satisfying for Ahsoka, especially when he tumbled off the couch. Lying on his back with his legs still on the furniture, Torian spluttered as he tried to figure out why he was wet and looking at the ceiling through bleary eyes. He heard laughter, and his eyes narrowed when he finally saw a familiar Togruta standing over him, doubled over and laughing so hard she actually _snorted _a few times. He folded his arms and glared at Ahsoka as he waited for her laughter to subside.

It took a while. Every time she seemed to be all laughed out, his pouty glare and sopping wet hair would send her into another fit of giggling. Eventually she calmed down, but her smile was so broad that it revealed her fangs.

Torian found that it was suddenly very difficult to be upset with Ahsoka, but he stubbornly kept his glare in place. "Why am I wet?"

She started giggling again, and almost dropped the empty canteen as she waved it mockingly. "Bec-because you made me climb three f-flights of stairs to find you!"

Torian huffed and pulled his legs off the couch, wincing when the leather rubbed against the bacta-patches on his thighs. Sitting up, he used the blanket he'd found to dry his hair and continued to glare at the still laughing Togruta.

Or at least, he _tried _to glare at her. Her amusement was filling every corner of his mind and to his chagrin it felt... nice, and more than a little surprising. While her laughter wasn't necessarily friendly, it also wasn't hostile or demeaning like he would sometimes get from some of the less kind younglings at the temple. It was also a far cry from how she'd felt about him when they had first arrived on Christophsis.

"You could've just, you know, _poked _me or something." Torian finished drying his padawan braid and stood up, stretching his sore limbs. He faltered when he finally noticed the bandage on her face. "What happened to your nose?"

Ahsoka's eyes widened as she went from amused to embarrassed in the blink of an eye. The blue stripes on her lekku darkened as she stammered, "l uh, um... I got hit by shrapnel! From a, um... from the explosion! When we blew up the shield!"

Torian's eyes narrowed at the obvious lie. He knew she had a tendecy to jump without looking where she'd land, and whatever happened was clearly embarrassing enough to lie about... he smirked as the puzzle pieces fell into place, and the opportunity for a little payback was too good to ignore. "You ran into something, didn't you?"

"...No!"

"Then why is your nose crooked?"

"What?!" Ahsoka shrieked as her hands flew to her face, running her fingers along the bridge of her nose. "Kix said it was fine!"

A snicker brought Ahsoka's attention back to Tori's grinning face. "Don't worry, it is."

Torian's grin died a quick death when Ahsoka's eyes became venomous slits, as she slowly and calmly lowered her hands. They settled on her hips as she smiled again, although this time the expression gave him a strong sense of impending doom. _His _doom.

"Ahsoka?" She continued to smile at him, and Tori realized that she was standing between him and his only escape route. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

The way Ahsoka ran her eyes over his body reminded him of a predator eyeing its next meal. "Do you know how I got this headdress?" Her voice was sickly sweet as she pointed to the array of teeth and beads that decorated her montrals.

Torian swallowed and tried to remember what he knew of Togrutan culture. "Uh... a special hunt, right?"

Ahsoka nodded, still smiling. "It's a traditional hunt, where we kill an akul in a very specific way. Do you know what that way is?"

Torian gulped and shook his head nervously. Was it normal for a fourteen year old girl to be this terrifying?

The Togruta's smile turned toothy and positively _evil _as she very deliberately displayed the full length of her fangs. They were long, blindingly white, and razor sharp. "We sever its jugular vein with our teeth, preferably while it's sleeping. Think about that the next time I have to wake you up because our masters need us." She then turned on her heel and sauntered out of the room, somehow managing to make even the sway of her padawan beads seem threatening.

Torian stood there gaping in horror as she left, already dreading the nightmares he would be having about waking up with her teeth latched on to his throat. She couldn't be serious... could she?

"Don't make me go back in there, Tori!"

He had never moved so quickly in his life.

(-O-)

"Any idea why Master _Yoda_ is here?" Anakin asked, whilst using the late afternoon sun to see as he worked on R2-D2. The dust and grime of the battlefield were hell on the astromech's wheel joints, and it was a constant struggle to keep his friend in good shape. "And why he would come in person?"

"He didn't say." Obi-Wan stroked his beard and glanced into the sky. The faint pinprick of a Republic shuttle was steadily growing larger as it descended the atmosphere, the much larger silhouette of an Acclamator transport ship not far behind it. "It's important, whatever it is. Now, where are our padawans? Ahsoka should have found Torian by now."

Satisfied that Artoo was as clean as he could get him, at least until they made it back to the _Resolute_, Anakin set down his wire brush and gave his former master a curious look. "Speaking of Tori, what's his deal? Something about him seems... off."

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"He always looks like he feels sick. That and his emotions feel strange, like they're... _cluttered, _I guess."

Obi-Wan blinked in surprise. He had noticed the same thing, but hadn't expected Anakin to see it as well this soon. A reminder that younger man could be very perceptive, at least when he chose to be.

"He's just a bit nervous and doesn't want to disappoint anyone. It will pass."

Anakin eyed him skeptically. "It felt like a lot more than 'nerves', Obi-Wan. You and I both know that being distracted on a battlefield gets people killed."

The Jedi Master grimaced, knowing that Anakin made a good point. He didn't believe that Torian would ever be a danger to his own troops, but how to make Anakin believe that without revealing a secret that wasn't his to tell?

"He just needs to know that other people believe in him, and he'll be fine."

"...If you say so."

Silence fell as Anakin went back to inspecting Artoo, and Obi-Wan sighed as he absentmindedly watched the commotion around him. Admiral Yularen had returned with a fleet of Star Destroyers about an hour after Loathsom surrendered, and after another hour of fighting he was able to break through the blockade and establish contact with the surface. The clones were now bustling about, packing up supplies and preparing to leave as soon as the large transports arrived. Obi-Wan could sense that most of them were eager to leave this planet, and he couldn't help but agree. He wasn't going to miss Christophsis.

Obi-Wan finally spotted the padawans as they weaved their way through the crowd of clone troopers. They managed to avoid running into any clones, though Tori had a few close calls. By the time they arrived, Obi-Wan had noticed that his padawan's hair was damp and he was giving Ahsoka a wide berth, frequently glancing at her with a strange mixture of horror and curiosity. By contrast, Ahsoka was smirking the entire time, the look of someone who had gotten revenge and enjoyed every moment of it.

"What took you guys so long?" Anakin asked as they walked up.

Ahsoka's smirk soured as she glared at Torian. "We would've been here sooner, but I had to search through _four floors _to find Mister Grouch."

"The lower floors were too noisy! I couldn't sleep!" Torian argued, shrinking back from the intensity of Ahsoka's glare. He could sense that she wasn't actually angry at him, at least not very much, but the not-so-subtle threat she'd made earlier still had him a bit rattled. He would admit that he was morbidly curious about the tradition, namely whether or not she was lying through her pointy teeth, but he wasn't about to ask her about it any time soon. Not when she smirked at him like that, _again_, and showed just the tiniest bit of white between her lips. "But I'll wear earmuffs next time!"

Obi-Wan raised his brow and glanced at Anakin, who simply shrugged. They both could already tell that their padawans were going to have a rather chaotic relationship.

Clearing his throat to get their attention, Obi-Wan asked, "I trust you rested well, then?"

"Well enough." Torian picked at one of the bacta-patches on his thigh, trying to ignore the growing pressure in his head. He was having an easier time releasing everyone's emotions than he did yesterday, though that really wasn't much of an improvement and it could just be because he wasn't fighting for his life. It still wasn't working at all with Ahsoka, and the headache that appeared shortly after she'd woken him up was steadily getting worse.

"Good, 'cause Master Yoda is on his way, which means we're about to get sent on a mission to save the galaxy. _Again._" Anakin rolled his eyes. "Don't know why they have to always send _us_."

"Don't be such a downer, Master. I'm sure it'll be exciting!" Just the prospect of another mission was enough to get the Togrutra's blood pumping. She bounced on the balls of her feet, forgetting that she was supposed to be glaring at Tori. "Where do you think we're going?"

Anakin pointed up into the sky just as the shuttle flew overhead and prepared to land. "We're about to find out." He stood up and started walking over to the shuttle, and the others dutifully followed.

|-O-|

The tiny green being known as Yoda was already waiting at the bottom of the shuttle's ramp when the four Jedi arrived. It was easy to underestimate the Jedi Grand Master, what with his elderly, wrinkled appearance and small size, but his status as Grand Master of the Jedi Order wasn't some meaningless title given out to anyone who'd been on the council long enough. He was indeed very old-ancient, by the standards of most beings-but age had not dulled his immense strength with the Force, rivaled only by Anakin Skywalker, and the experience gained from age had granted him wisdom beyond any other. Every Jedi that had ever walked through the great halls of the Jedi Temple over the last 700 years had been trained by Master Yoda in some capacity, including Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Torian.

As the four Jedi approached, Yoda observed them, reflecting on their wholly unique positions in both the Jedi Order and the galaxy as a whole.

Anakin was a mess of contradictions. Immensely powerful, yet crippled by his own turbulent emotions. Powerful with the Light, yet unable-or unwilling-to abide by some of the most basic tenants of the Jedi Code. Believed to be the Chosen One, prophesied to bring about the final end of the Sith, yet plagued by his own dark demons. The Hero With No Fear, yet he was terrified of taking on an apprentice. Overwhelmingly confident in his own abilities, yet so often reliant on his former master to rescue and protect him.

Obi-Wan was a paragon of the Light, the first Jedi to slay a Sith in a thousand years and, most importantly, mentor and close friend to one of the most powerful force-sensitives in galactic history. He was the youngest Jedi to be promoted to the High Council in centuries, not because of his power-he was actually the weakest council member, in terms of raw Force strength-but because of his wisdom and unwavering devotion to the Jedi Code. A cunning warrior and shrewd negotiator, he was the stalwart shield against the Dark that kept his oft-unbalanced former padawan focused and on the right path. A shield that now was being asked to protect two more padawans, young and more frightened than they would ever admit.

Ahsoka shared many of her new master's traits. She was too proud and headstrong, craving excitement and adventure. She was extraordinarily strong with the Force, undoubtedly the most gifted youngling in her crèche and the Order as a whole, but her youth and naïveté meant she had yet to learn the restraint necessary to make that power truly impactful, much like her master. Yoda hoped it was something they would learn together in time.

Torian... Torian was something of an enigma, even to Yoda. Yoda had spent more time with the young human than anyone else ever had, but he still felt that he had much to learn about the boy, primarily because he spoke so little about himself. Just after Tori had left the temple for Christophsis, Yoda had come to the startling realization that he only really knew three things about him: that he had a strenuous and rarely seen ability which he despised, that he was a voracious reader, and that he was far more powerful than anyone realized. Power that was greatly hampered by his own pessimism and self-doubt.

When the four Jedi came to a halt in front of him, Yoda put his right fist into his left palm and bowed his head. "Greetings, young ones. Glad to see you well, I am." _Mostly _well. The padawans were a little worse for wear, and now that they were closer Yoda thought that Ahsoka's nose looked a tad different.

"Likewise, Master Yoda." Obi-Wan and the others returned the gesture of greeting. "Am I correct in assuming you have a task for us?"

Yoda nodded, resting his hands atop his wooden cane. "Correct, you are. Of great importance, this mission is." He looked over each Jedi, his eyes lingering on Skywalker to gauge his reaction. "Kidnapped, Jabba the Hutt's son has been. Requested our help, he has."

Torian flinched and Yoda made a small noise of disapproval at the sudden bursts of emotion from Anakin and Ahsoka. Anakin rapidly transitioned from surprise to intense displeasure and irritation, while Ahsoka felt horrified and sympathetic.

"Why would we help Jabba-or _any _Hutt-with anything?" Anakin folded his arms and scowled.

"Anakin, you know we've been trying to make a treaty with the Hutts since the war began." Obi-Wan brought a hand to his beard, working through the potential consequences of rescuing or failing to rescue the Hutt. "I don't like working with the Hutt cartels either, but rescuing Jabba's son could give us the bargaining power we need to gain access to their Outer Rim shipping routes. It could be crucial to the war effort."

Anakin grit his teeth, frustrated both at Obi-Wan's sound reasoning and the critically scrutinizing look Yoda was giving him. He understood why the Council would agree to help Jabba, but still-he was a _Hutt_. Everyone in the galaxy knew that the word 'Hutt' was synonymous with criminal, gangster, and _slaver_. Anakin knew that last one from experience, something that Yoda and Obi-Wan seemed to be forgetting. If he'd had his way, the Hutt clans would have been wiped out years ago, but crusading through the Outer Rim slaughtering every Hutt he could find wasn't exactly Jedi-like.

Anakin's irritation was beginning to boil over, when he glanced at the two padawans and immediately felt ashamed. They were staring at him with wide eyes, confused and maybe even a bit frightened by his reaction. Tori looked like he was fighting a headache, and Ahsoka's lekku were twitching spasmodically as she tried to understand why her master was so upset by the notion of helping someone.

Quickly stomping down on the anger that was now directed at himself, Anakin took a deep breath and cleared his mind of emotion. Tried to, at least. "Alright, I guess we're saving a Hutt. Do we know who took him, and where?"

Master Yoda didn't respond right away, instead scrutinizing Skywalker with squinted eyes and the Force. Finally he hummed and said, "Know who took him, we do not. Tracked Jabba's bounty hunters to the planet Teth, our scouts have. Go there you will, Skywalker." He then pointed at Obi-Wan with his cane. "To Tatooine, Obi-Wan and his apprentice will go. Speak with Jabba, they will."

"What about me? I'm going to Teth too... right?" Ahsoka's eyes flicked between Yoda and Anakin, hopeful and nervous at the same time. Her master had already made it clear to her that he would be keeping her as an apprentice, but she was still worried he might change his mind.

"Up to Skywalker, that decision is."

All eyes turned to Anakin, Ahsoka's big blue irises pleading with him to say yes. She really shouldn't have been worried; Anakin had already made his decision.

"She stays with me."

With those words Ahsoka's force signature went supernova, Obi-Wan's flared with relief and pride, and Torian nearly fell over. Caught off-guard, the happy emotions of the other Jedi combined with his own surprise resulted in him wearing a giddy, dopey smile with the sudden urge to hug Skywalker. An urge that both he and Ahsoka barely resisted.

After a few seconds of this, Torian managed to wipe the stupid smile off his face, though his fingers still twitched with a desire to hug that wasn't his own. Ahsoka's emotions were once again overwhelming his mind with their intensity, and it was all he could do to stay standing while his head pulsed with pain. He was vaguely aware that the other Jedi were talking, but he was too focused on his frantic efforts to let go of the emotions to really register what they were saying.

Ahsoka bounced on the balls of her feet, desperately wanting to rush forward and give her new master the biggest hug her tiny frame would allow. Being a physically affectionate person while having to adhere to the Jedi Code was _hard. _Upon seeing Master Yoda's mildly scolding look, she tried to school her emotions, but she was just too excited. She had dreamt of the day she became a padawan for years, and now that it was official she was happier than she'd ever been. So much so that the sudden and faint throbbing in her head was easily ignored.

"I won't let you down, Master!" Glancing around at the clone troopers milling about, she then said, "I'll go tell Rex and get the troops organized!" She sprinted away, ready to tell Rex and anyone else who would listen that she was officially Anakin Skywalker's padawan.

Anakin chuckled as she ran off, though it was more nervous than amused. Watching the Togruta sprint way, he began to realize the huge responsibility he'd placed on his own shoulders. He was now responsible for her training and well-being, and he would have a tremendous influence on her Jedi path. It was a daunting task, especially given that they were fighting a war and he'd already become far more attached to her than was considered appropriate. The thought of losing her, whether to knighthood or death or-Force forbid-the Dark Side, was unbearable.

Anakin looked over his shoulder when a hand was placed on it, and saw Obi-Wan wearing a reassuring and proud smile.

"Don't worry, Anakin. Just teach her everything I taught you, and she'll turn out fine."

Anakin smiled back in gratitude, but the smile quickly turned into a glare with no real heat behind it. "You know, something tells me _you _set this whole thing up." He then gently pulled away and followed after his padawan, albeit at a much more sedate pace.

Once Anakin was out of earshot, Obi-Wan turned to Yoda and asked, "Do you think we made the right decision, Master?"

Yoda hummed and said, "Ready he is, to train an apprentice. To let go of his pupil, a much greater challenge it will be." He then focused his attention on Tori, who wore a pained expression and was groaning softly. "Breathe, young one. Let go of their emotions, you must."

Torian only barely managed to bite back the irritated response that was his initial reaction. Taking a deep breath through his nose, he opened his weary eyes and said, "I'm trying Master, it's just...hard. And it hurts."

Yoda shook his head and tapped the ground forcefully with his cane. "Do, or do not. There is no try. Have faith in yourself you must, or never will you succeed."

Grimacing at Master Yoda's favorite saying, having heard it so many times that it was practically etched onto his brain, Torian's shoulders slumped and he sighed, saying, "I just wish I didn't have this problem."

Torian was caught off guard by the sudden flash of irritation he felt from the tiny green Jedi. It was gone almost as soon as it appeared, and anyone else probably wouldn't have noticed it, but Tori wasn't like other Jedi. No emotion could escape his notice or be hidden from him.

"Grateful you should be. Given you a great gift, the Force has, yes." Yoda lifted his cane and gently tapped Tori on the chest. "Learn to control it, you will. A great tool, it will become. Certain of this, I am."

"You should listen to Master Yoda, Tori." Obi-Wan tried to convey as much reassurance as he could, still sensing that Torian didn't really believe what Yoda was saying. "Don't doubt yourself, and don't forget that you are already improving. You did well today, Padawan."

Torian stared at the ground, uncomfortable at the praise and wishing he could believe that he deserved it. One semi-successful day as a padawan didn't make up for six years of failure.

Wanting very much for the conversation to be over, Torian sighed through his nose and looked back up at his master. "So we're going to Tatooine?"

The look on Obi-Wan's face told Tori that the conversation was very much _not _over, but it was at least postponed. "Yes, and we should leave as soon as possible." Obi-Wan looked around for a clone with distinctive yellow armor, and when he found him he pointed and said, "Tori, go inform Cody of the situation and have him call for a gunship to take us to _The Negotiator_. "

"Yes, Master." Torian turned away and started towards Commander Cody, who was barking orders at the clones around him.

Obi-Wan stroked his beard and frowned as he watched his discouraged padawan weave through the crowd of clone troopers.

"Troubled you are, Obi-Wan." Yoda's tone made it a statement rather than a question.

Grimacing, Obi-Wan kept his eyes on Torian's back as he replied, "I knew from when I observed him at the temple that he had a tendency to doubt himself but... I didn't realize that it was so severe."

"Not just doubt, it is. Fear also, yes." Yoda leaned heavily on his cane, watching as Torian deliberately avoided Ahsoka while she ran around talking to every clone who would listen. "Sense much fear in them, I do."

[-]

Torian tightened his grip on his master's robes as the the gunship lurched beneath him. The gunship had entered _The Negotiator_'s main hanger bay, and the force of the Destroyer's artificial gravity caused the gunship to drop downward in the brief moment before its thrusters could compensate. Normally it wasn't so bad, but the padawan was also suffering under the mortifying embarrassment of being too short to reach the overhead handrails. He would've fallen over if not for his master's grip on his shoulder, and his face turned crimson as he felt Cody's amusement next to him.

His only consolation was seeing Ahsoka discover that she couldn't reach the handrail of her and Anakin's gunship either, just before they'd taken off.

The gunship finally landed, and as the doors opened and the clone troopers piled out Torian took a deep breath through his nose, finally able to do so without gagging. Being in a confined space with a bunch of soldiers who hadn't had the chance to shower in weeks was a quick way to die of asphyxiation, he'd discovered. Asphyxiation and, for someone who hated being in close proximity to other people, claustrophobia.

"Come along, Tori. We have a few minutes to clean up and eat before our starfighters are ready."

Obi-Wan began walking at a brisk pace towards a turbolift at the rear of the hanger, and Torian hastily followed, giving his master a confused look.

"Starfighters?" He asked. "Why are we taking starfighters, Master?"

Obi-Wan shook his head as they entered the turbolift, pressing a button that was labeled Deck 3. The doors closed and the turbolift lurched as it began to move upwards. "Showing up on someone's doorstep in a heavily armed warship is rarely a good way to open negotiations, especially when beings as proud as the Hutts are involved. We'll be taking starfighters."

The turbolift smoothly came to a stop, and the doors opened to reveal a busy hallway. Clones, both armored and unarmored, hustled through the corridors like an army of Corellian fire ants. Obi-Wan stepped out of the turbolift and turned right, resuming his brisk pace as the clones parted around him and Tori, recognizing the urgency of their movements. Torian tried to memorize the path they were taking, but became hopelessly lost after just a few more turns; the labyrinthine maze, combined with the rapid ebb and flow of emotion from the clones racing by, was enough to make his head spin. He received more than a few stares as they walked, the clones wondering who the kid with a lightsaber following General Kenobi was, and why he looked like he'd been through the wringer.

"Preferably, I would have used this time to introduce you to the crew and show you around the ship. Unfortunately, that will have to wait." Obi-Wan stopped in front of a small door with his name and rank written on it in Aurebesh. After entering a passcode on the keypad next to the door, the door slid to the side to reveal a small, cramped room. There were two bunks, each with a single pillow and flimsi-thin sheets, made up in an impeccably military manner. In the corner was a small desk, with a large collection of neatly stacked datachips sitting next to a computer terminal. "These will be our quarters."

Torian followed his master into the room, glancing around with wide eyes. While most beings might've hated such a cramped and bare bedroom, this was standard lodging for a Jedi, and a huge step up for a padawan who had grown up in the communal sleeping arrangements of the crèche.

"Those are for you." Obi-Wan gestured to a neatly folded pile of clothing on Torian's bunk, complete with boots, a set of leather gauntlets, and a utility belt, then began removing the various pieces of plasteel armor he wore over his own robes.

Torian slowly walked over to his new bunk, taking in what was his essentially his new home away from the temple. Suddenly feeling overwhelmed, he gingerly ran his fingers over the soft, tan colored fabric of his new tunic. He had thought himself reconciled with the fact that he was now a padawan, and that there was no going back, but he was beginning to realize that he wasn't. A tiny voice in the back of his mind still refused to believe that this was real, and anything more than a dream, but now that he shared a room with his master, could sleep in his own bed, and could wear something besides the ubiquitous brown robes of a youngling...

The sound of a drawer opening made Torian look over his shoulder. His master reached into the drawer underneath his bed, pulling out one of his spare black bodysuits and a tan overtunic. Hanging them over his shoulder and pointing to a door at the back of their room, he said, "You can use the refresher in here, Tori. I'll use the communal showers." He walked towards the door, but before stepping back into the corridor he looked back and smiled. "Try to be quick, we don't want to keep the mighty Jabba waiting."

The door shut behind him with a soft hiss of air, and Torian stared at it for a few moments before looking down at the collection of fabric and leather on his bed. Sighing through his nose, he silently gathered it all into his arms and walked into the refresher, unable to shake the feeling that he was about to cross the point of no return.

After showering and drying off, Torian was almost finished dressing when the full reality of his situation finally struck him. As he was pulling on one of the gauntlets, he happened to catch his reflection in the mirror and realized with a start that the person looking back at him was barely recognizable.

Oh, the face and eyes were the same, but everything else was different. The baggy and cumbersome secondhand youngling's tunic had been replaced with a clean, brand new and almost form-fitting padawan's tunic. Sleeves which before had been comically long on his skinny arms now ended precisely at the point where his forearm became his wrist, and were covered at the ends by leather gauntlets that made his hands seem larger and stronger. A tabard hung over the tunic, hanging down to his mid thigh and tied at the waist with a utility belt that had more pouches than he could count. Trousers that had once been a struggle to keep secured to his waistline now fit snugly, hugging his legs without being restrictive. The boots were comfortable, if stiff, and didn't make him feel like he was walking on rough duracrete everywhere he went. The padawan braid, which he hadn't actually seen in a mirror until now, hung down proudly behind his right ear, not quite reaching his shoulder.

It was like looking at a completely different person. If not for the violet eyes, Torian honestly wouldn't have recognized himself. Even with the shocked look on his face, the Tori in the mirror looked stronger and braver than Tori the youngling had ever been. The Tori in the mirror was no longer a child, but a young man, a young _Jedi_.

Part of him wanted to rip it all off, believing that he wasn't and could never be the person he saw in the mirror, but the other part... the other part demanded that he do everything he could to become the person in the mirror, as if it were challenging him to prove the pessimistic and self-deprecating part of himself wrong, as well as anyone else who had ever doubted him. He looked like a padawan, now he ought to prove he was worthy of the title.

He _almost _looked like a padawan. There was one piece still missing, a cylindrical weapon made of durasteel and crafted by his own hands. Picking up his lightsaber from the counter top, Torian thought back to the first time he had held it in his palm, and the brief feelings of power and confidence it had given him. It felt like such a long time ago when he had traveled to Ilum with his crèche-mates for the Gathering, finding the kyber crystal that sang to him and claimed him. Such a long time ago since Master Krell had gently guided him in constructing his lightsaber, praising him when he got it right on his first try. Such a long time ago since he had activated it for the first time, and stared in wonder as it's blue glow filled the room.

Acting on a whim, he lifted the hilt up horizontally in front of him, careful to not point it at anything in the room, and thumbed the igniter. The blade sprang to life, and the change in its personality was immediately noticeable. The deep hum that had before been erratic, shifting in frequency as if unable to find its harmonic resonance, was now a steady, growling purr. The metal encasing his crystal was warm, and the blade seemed fuller and brighter, as though the crystal had sensed its master's shift in attitude and approved. Indeed, when he reached out with the Force, Torian realized that his crystal was easier to connect with than before, its presence more willingly accepting of his embrace.

This was the ultimate indication to Torian that he was where he was meant to be. He was meant to walk this path, regardless of how afraid of it he was. He wasn't naive enough to think he would overcome his insecurities easily, but as he stared into his reflection's violet eyes, shadowed by the blue light of his saber, Torian decided he was ready.

Not ready to accept his gift, which still felt more like a curse, but ready to be a padawan. Nervous and afraid, but ready.

* * *

**Next chapter will have a lot more action and Jedi awesomness. Pinkie promise.**


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